First day at the Newmarket fair

By all accounts, the day was very quiet and other exhibiters were adamant that Sunday is always the busiest day, but that this was one of the quietest Saturdays they had experienced... hopefully, tomorrow will be completely mad! Despite everything, I had a relatively good day and I wished now I had made more stuff...
Next update: tomorrow, and it will hopefully be "sold out"! :)

Newmarket Arts & Craft fair THIS WEEKEND!!!

Don't forget this weekend is the Newmarket Arts & Crafts Fair, Saturday & Sunday 12 to 6 pm, at the James O'Keeffe's institute!!! Loads of great gift ideas, come and say Hi! :)

After the Wine and Art...

Well, there was a lot of disappointed faces when 11pm came, the guests because the free booze was coming to an end ;) , and the artists because, well there was very few sales on the night. For my part I was rather happy with this PR experience, even if there was no sales, it was very satisfying to have the opportunity to put my work out there and have loads of chat with interesting people.
There were raffles, auctions of different goodies and art pieces, and I believe quite a bit of money has been raised for charity, which is the important thing!

Bien, il y avait plusieurs visages plutôt déçus quand le coup de 23h a finalement retenti, ceux des invites parce que ça annonçait la fin du flot de vin gratuit don't ils avaient profité toute la soirée, et ceux des artistes parce que, bien, il y eu très peu de ventes. Pour ma part, j'étais quand meme contente de cette experience, meme si je n'ai rien vendu, c'était très satisfaisant d'avoir l'opportunité de montrer mon travail et avoir toutes ces conversations avec des gens très intéressants.
Il y eu des tirages, des ventes aux enchères de différentes gâteries et oeuvres d'art, et je crois qu'un bon montant a été amassé pour les oeuvres de charité, c'est ce qui comptait vraiment!

Now, I can't live on great times and conversation, so lets just hope next weekend will be more financially viable :)

Should have taken more photos on the night, but there you go was to busy talking!

http://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/localnotes/rotary-celebrates-ten-years-of-wine-and-art-evenings-29750329.html

 

 

Framed and ready to go!

A good tidy up is also part of the creative process...

And that's what I did today. There was stuff everywhere and you could barely walk through my makeshift studio. The work is all finished for the pre-Christmas fairs now (and I have my fingers crossed that it will all be dry in time!!), so it was time to clear the space and slowly get things ready for the next series. There is very little paint left, but all was put in it's place, the paintings that made the selection to be exhibited were carefully wrapped and put in the mega-folder, the ones that didn't were stored away, their future is unknown but some could resurface once I've had time away from them...
Un bon ménage fait partie du processus de creation.. Et c'est ce à quoi j'ai mis tous mes efforts aujourd'hui. Il y avait des trucs partout, qu'on pouvait à peine metre un pied devant l'autre dans mon atelier "improvise". Tout le travail maintenant complété pour les salons d'avant Noël (et je me croise les doigts que tout sera bel et bien sec à temps!!), alors il était grand temps de faire de l'espace et, lentement, se preparer pour les prochaines series. Il reste peu de peinture, mais chacune fut remise à sa place, les toiles qui ont passé le test de sélection emballées et placées dans le mega-portefolio... et celles qui furent exclues, mises de côté, leur avenir est incertain mais elles pourraient refaire surface lorsque j'aurai passé assez de temps sans elles... 

These are actually "after" pictures in case you`re in doubt :)

There is a great satisfaction in putting blank canvases in view, some sketching work at hand, to give the surfaces a good clean (there was an unattended spill of linseed oil and other unidentified substances that gave a good fight to keep their corner, but it was a knockout in the end).

Some of the paintings and prints available now...

Wine and Art evening Killarney, now if there was ever a tempting combo...

The Wine and Art event is returning again this year at the Killarney Rotary Club, Malton hotel in Killarney on Wednesday 20th November, and I am very happy to say I will be part of it, exhibiting paintings and selected limited edition prints.
The event promises to bring together the cream of local artistic talent and to offer the chance to sample some of the most enticing labels on the market (the organizers own words!)
And wine and art apart, the best thing is 30% of all proceeds are donated to local charities.

Once again, see you there!! :)

Newmarket Christmas Craft fair 30 Nov/1 Dec

I will be at the Christmas Craft fair at the James O'Keeffe building in Newmarket, Co Cork on the 30th November & 1st December, 12-6pm, for those of you who will be in this part of the world it's well worth the detour with all sorts of Arts and Crafts on offer, plus their lovely Christmas Tea room with loads of goodies :)
Check out also the hands of Duhallow from which I am a new member: http://www.irdduhallow.com/duhallow-enterprise/hands-of-duhallow  and check the art book to see the existing members.

Available from me will be: latest paintings, selected limited edition prints and hand painted Christmas decorations.

I've just allowed myself a short break of a couple of days away from the studio and you know what, did me no good! Getting seriously back in creation really gave me a new lease of life, as cliché as it sounds. I didn't know what was missing from my new "mom at home" life and I've definitely put the finger on it now. Balancing the two is still a work in progress but I'm hopeful I'm getting somewhere. Getting the brain in gear was needed and I think I'll have a long list of resolutions this January!

Cute and cuddly too...

Festive nights... Im really getting in the mood now!