Lots of people were attracted by our street sign
There is a lot of stuff to catch up on since my last post. But I held off on making any new entries while this new fantastic improved blog you are looking at was designed, thank you Jacob Fennell, and then I was deeply into all the preparations for POST. So this blog posting shares information about that: Every year there is a Philadelphia Open Studio Tour (POST), in which all the participating local artists open their studios (or spaces that represent their studios) to the public over two weekends. It is a great way to show your work, essentially as a solo exhibition. This was the first year I’ve been able to participate, and it was a lot of work to get ready.
This banner welcomed people down the looong hallway to our exhibition
I had rented the Community Room in my building, because NOBODY was going to come to my actual studio in a 13th floor apartment. I also invited three other great artists to join me, so we had a concentration of good work, in different styles. It was also good to share the work that went into the preparation, to make display panels, posters for the show, and get our publicity prepared and distributed.
Three Artist Friends were also exhibiting their work in the room, so it became like a whole Art Gallery
But it was a dynamite event. We had 275 guests, which was phenomenal. Lots of friends, people from the apartment building itself, people following the POST map, and walk-ins from the street. I think it is all about Location, Location, Location, and fortunately we are in the center of everything, here.
This photo was made at a rare, rather quiet spell. But it has the advantage of catching Mike Fernandez, over there on the left.
One side of my display focused on Cityscapes
We couldn’t hang stuff from the ceiling, or use the walls, so I made some pegboard display panels to use instead. In my area, I concentrated on showing Cityscapes and Portraits/Figurative work. Here is how the (mostly) Cityscape portion looked.
The other side of my display area presented portraits and figures
And here is my presentation of (mostly) portraits. You’ve seen some of them before if you have been following my blog before it moved to this new URL (find the old blogs here and here and especially here). But a couple of these paintings are new, and I’ll be posting more about them soon.
Promise!
Everybody had a chance to get involved in our Event
It was a great event. Our surprising attendance would have been good even for a gallery opening. Written comments as well as evaluations from friends and other artists were all favorable. All four of us who were part of the event sold a few of our lower-end works, and I was fortunate to have made a major sale. And, it was fun.
It was a lot of work, but a really good thing to do. I absolutely will be part of POST 2012, and maybe I can even expand the number of artists by including the patio of our building as exhibition space. The more the merrier. Sculptors? Ceramics? Mosaics?
