Art in the Pearl Eye Candy

What a beautiful week in the North Park Blocks of Portland. Despite cool temperatures and rain we had a brilliant turn out for the eleventh year of Art in the Pearl.

Look what I bought from Amanda Blake. Two oil paintings of such tender beauty that I will feel nourished by them forever. So intelligent.

I get shivers looking into the expressions of the faces she paints. This is where I live. Didn't I pick out good ones?

And here is the fair woman herself; as lovely as her work and just as authentic. Deep and gentle.

Oh, there were so many outstanding artists this year that I couldn't stop clicking my camera. Above is the work of the excellent Ms. Chris Giffin. The link will take you to her page at the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery.

Diane Culhane was there with a body of work that I liked very much. She's using more white in her paintings now which adds contrast and a whole new look.

Ann Fleming brought her gentle and technically difficult bronzes that just keep getting more amazing all the time.

Anthony Hansen was there with his big sculptures made from recycled parts. You can read about his extraordinary technique at his website.

There was outstanding entertainment all weekend long. My favorite were these stunning women from India who danced and thrilled us with their exotic presence.

Jana Grover came from San Francisco and brought her painting of a blue javelina. She explained to me that they are not pigs but rather peccaries which is a type of rodent. Cool!

She did the crow ten commandments, two of which are pictured above. Wish I had photos of all of them to show you. They were very clever and very funny.

Eileen Goldenberg is the President of International Encaustic Artists and I am her fan club. She is someone I look up to as a brilliant artist and an advanced human being. Her work is breath taking. She came to us too from the bay area and if you are lucky enough to travel there, she teaches from time to time. Highly recommended.

Jim C. Brown travelled to us from Canada and has always worked in plaster. He is experimental and likes to poke the envelope as I do. This year he is painting great troweled pigmented plaster paintings on board (beautifully!) that I adored. He sands and fiddles with them - bravo, well done!!

Lisa Burge came from Taos, NM and brought her oil paintings and monotypes. Oh, to take a class from her. I love her work; it makes me wonder at it's mystery. I want to get inside her paintings - they are so compelling.

Marilynn Host is a paper mache and gourd artist from San Martin, CA and she brought her little piggies, crows and other colorful creatures to make us happy. I love paper mache. These creations really made me want to play in the studio.

Mark Heimann is here because he dresses like a pirate and I think he's awfully cute. hee hee. Seriously, he is a fine ceramic artist and has been active on many art boards in Portland throughout the years. He also has a line of pirateware that is sure to bring a smile.

Wendy Dunder is the artist who has fabricated these amazing art lamps out of shaped wood and tissue paper. My photos cannot begin to show the beauty and craftsmanship involved.

She has better photos than this at her website.

Terry McIlrath is a friend and my own guru. Over our long friendship he has held up the lantern of truth many times for me (as has his partner Debra). They work together under the name of Joule Fine Art and their work is delightful and always changing. I love the variety in all his design elements - I could stare at one painting endlessly.

Sa Boothroyd is a painter and printmaker from Canada that I first met two decades ago at the Bellevue Art Fair. John and I both purchased her prints from her then and love the work she is doing now in painting. I love to see how we've all evolved over the years.

Vladimir Ovtcharov is an artist who was born in Bulgaria and whose work really defies description.

Part oil painting, part assemblage, these complex shadow boxes full of mystery and beauty just exist to delight and inspire. His work has been quite different in the years I have seen it here; always new and better with each change.

A fine Portland tradition. A horse tied up the the horse rings that were embedded in the concrete curbs so long ago.

At the end of the fair John and I repaired to our favorite Mexican food restaurant to enjoy a faustian repast. (I'll diet tomorrow.)

I couldn't resist showing John and his creations. He is an artist of the soil and a good one too.

Several announcements. You must sign up for Artfest 2009 today. I'm sorry not to have given more advance notice but that's the way this week has gone. If you know about Artfest you know it fills up on the first day and you must get your letter off on time.

Secondly: Kelly Rae's book, Taking Flight arrived on my doorstep last Friday and it is a wonderful book. My technique is the final chapter showing one of my encaustic collaged paintings and how I made it (Kelly Rae takes our instructions and does a work of her own following the general guidelines) ... a very nice book that includes artist interviews with a hand full of artists and loads of techniques for you to try in your own way. If you're like me and curious about how other artists approach their work, this one will surely have something new for you. Kelly is a very inspiring role model for anyone who wants to launch a new art career.

I have more but will post again; sending out love to everyone who visited me at my booth and in particular missy Allegra who told enchanting stories involving everything from Cordon Bleu cooking to Chinese Ambassadors and life in Venezuela, Spain and beyond. My imagination reeled at the pictures she painted.

All for today. More soon.

The Rest of Folklife

I took so many pictures of the musicians at the festival. I am always charmed by the young ones; so serious and intent. This girl was very accomplished.

I stood and watched the dancers for a long time. These folks were doing a steamy tango. Don't you love the way people dress in Seattle? Summer dresses with pants because the weather changes so quickly.

These tasty looking desserts are actually handcrafted candles made by Angela King. She also had root beer floats, pies, cakes and donuts. Yummy!

If you need some specialty candles her email is Angelaking999@cs.com. She needs a website!

I could almost take a bite out of the pecan pie. Anyway, she gets my vote for the most unusual craft at the fair.

I like the way the bagpiper advertised his website by writing it on his arm. Thinking all the time.

This is Julie Fry and she had a booth full of fabric art that I know you all would have loved. She creates panels and cards with fabric, beads and her nimble fingers. Beautiful work. Her contact number is (206)-367-6388.

I love the booth with the colorful shoes. One way I entertain myself at art fairs when things are slow is to observe the shoes people wear. When I was a little girl I used to make shoes out of fabric and cardboard. My sister and I would clump up and down the street in our crude sandals.

And here is my most awesome find. Her name is Paula Strobel and she can be contacted at P O Box 871 in Duvall, WA 98019. She makes dolls, puppets, hats, theatres, I don't know exactly what to call it other than a fantasy world. Hey, national magazines, here is your next feature artist. She lives in the country on a farm with no computer and apparently no telephone and hasn't done an art fair for years until this one because she is busy with her family and farm animals.

So the hand-written tag she wrote out for me says she makes puppets, toys, tea cozies, pins and etcetera. Above is a hat with her logo of the flying tiger. Everything about her booth was done with great love and precision.

The flying tiger puppet. I really hope someone will do a story on her. She is not a publicity seeker so you will have to make the effort.

This gorgeous woman caught my eye. Red dreadlocks, huge wooden earrings thrust through her ear lobes, lots of hardware and sass. And those eyes. Wow.

Here are the happy campers after a hard day of listening to music and enjoying the art fair. We made new friends, sold some paintings, visited with old friends and put another year of Folklife under our belts.

First Installment of Folklife

Folklife Festival is all about people. It is a celebration of music, dance, film, culture and the arts. People come to celebrate life and to welcome in summer. Naturally I look forward to it every year as one of my favorite shows. I enjoy the people, smells, sights and sounds. I talk to as many people as I can and laugh more than usual; it is a very sweet experience. You can see Seattle Center's big fountain off in the distance in the photo above and lots of people enjoying the sunny day. Love is in the air.

Is this young girl playing the cello not perfect for a painting? You can't have her; I saw her first!!

My friend from a year ago has gotten her wrist tatooed since I saw her last. A valkyrie maiden, eh? So beautiful.

Tatoo #2. I'm pretty much focusing on the tatoos in this entry as I have so many photos that I won't show them all at once. Plus I am busy and should be working but my dear readers, you come first!

The octopus tatoo belongs to the woman who had a booth next door to mine. The tatoo is not finished but it is outlined all the way down past the small of her back and it is one of the softest, most nuanced tatoos I I've ever seen. The artist who did it is a woman working out of Eugene, Oregon. Can't wait until next year to see it finished. I will get a picture of the whole thing then if I can; it was cold on the day I took this and I didn't have the heart to ask her to take off more clothes.

This is a view of the space needle from my room at the Queen Anne Inn. We had a room on the corner this year and a perfect view of the street scene below plus the space needle all lit up at night. I love Seattle so much. I have never had a bad moment in this city.

More pictures tomorrow. I gotta go wrap prints and start a painting of a Lemon Drop.

Art in the Pearl: Part Deux

Dogs and tatoos coming up. But first a show and tell. More goofing around in PhotoElements. I doodled some doodles in front of the TV last night with a ball point pen and colored them in with brushes. Now, do you have any idea how hard this would be to do with actual paint? I LOVE PhotoElements.

Here come the tatoos and the dogs from Art in the Pearl.

Tatoo number one. A Victorian face and a red poppy. Taken in my booth.

Tatoo number two. A crisp carp. The bearer asked the artist to sign it. She said that part made him very nervous as he'd never signed his name on someone's back before.

Tatoo number three. Japan influenced with mysterious calligraphy. Lovely. Dont you think?

Tatoo number four. A green mermaid. And the shells! Really unusual colors and detail. Magenta! I didn't know they could do magenta.

Tatoo number five. A froggie with an owie. This woman was herself a tatoo artist and had many many many to choose from. She is an accomplished artist in her own right and shared her portfolio with me. We will be hearing more from her.

Doggie number one. Pink and black polka dots. The glamorous owner was all dressed in pink too with high heels to match. Very ooooh la la. I'm going to paint them this winter. I get great ideas at the shows for paintings just by people watching.

Doggie number two. I think her name was Lulu. Isn't she gorgeous? I just want to hug her for that great, commanding mug. OK, my screen just told me I am cut off from Blogger so I'm going to go now and see if I lose this entire post. Ciao.