The Tents Went Up First….

The tents are going up for the Celebration of Fine Art and I’m home getting ready for the show. Each year right after Thanksgiving, the crew starts erecting the tents, 3 tents placed in a “u” configuration.

While the tents were going up, I was home working getting everything in organized and finished, at least as much as I could. Besides the paintings, I’ve got “products” ready to sell, greeting cards, giclee prints in both paper and canvas, my book, small paintings and giclee prints with easels. The show opened to the public on Sat, Jan 11. The Monday before the show, Jan 6 we (the artists) were able to get into the tents to start construction on our booths. I intended to post some photos of the booth in progress. But with some of my frames coming late, I was scrambling to do some last minute framing on my larger paintings. So, I will show you the finished booth and tell you a little about the construction.

The overall view of my booth.

The right side wall

My giclee corner

The first thing that we did in putting our studios together was to have carpet layed. Three of us that share this area went together in purchasing and having someone else lay the carpet for us.

Then we started the construction with two walls, each 8 foot high and 12 foot long at about a 120 degree angle. I have a sculptor next to me, Bryce Petit, from Utah. We (actually, he did the work) constructed a wall 8′ x 8′ between us, then put a wall 6′ wide and 9 foot high at the end. This is where you see my large vertical sunset painting and his table below it. Eventually, one of his fabulous wildlife sculptures will be on the table to complete the scene.

The 6′ wide wall has 4 feet of it over on my side. I then (ahem, my grandson) constructed a 3 foot wall on my end of the wall. This is where I mounted a wall easel for my studio. It is behind the black taboret in the top photo. These two walls made a small “u” section behind them, where I display my giclees separate from my originals.

After constructing the walls, I did all the painting of them. My grandson and I constructed a small cabinet in the “giclee section” which hides some of my extras. We also made a bin for the paper giclees. Next came the beams for the lights and the mounting of them. I really had trouble with my lights and connections this year for some reason. I was REALLY getting frustrated. But, one of the young guys at the show came over and helped me with some of it. I also had to reconfigure the lights and buy some new connectors and lights.

We cut and painted baseboards and finished painting the beams. After the construction, it was bringing in the paintings. But, first, I had to frame my large paintings all day Thursday. Some of my frames were late coming, because the framer had trouble getting some of his products he needed. But, after working really hard for me, he got them to me just in time. We had to have the booth finished by 12 noon on Friday,so that we could be back in the “white tents” by 4 pm for the preview party for VIP’s and the media. I made it! Whew!

I have participated in the show for 16 years with a total of four years off. Over the years my booth as well as every other booth in the show has evolved, improving each year. This afternoon I finally had time to walk the show for the first time to take a look around at old friends’ booths and to see who was new. Each year the show surpasses the last and this year is no exception.

Over the years I have made some great friendships with artists in the Celebration family. You can imagine after 10 weeks of going to the show every day, you really get to know some of the artists. The camaraderie amongst the artists and staff is wonderful. If you don’t know anything about the show, visit the website of Celebration of Fine Art, http://celebrateart.com for more info.

To read about the history of the show click here.

More about the show as it continues from now through March. I hope some of you can come to visit the show. Everyone is “blown-away” the first time they see the art show.

Later,

Becky