This past weekend was busy. I spent both Friday and Saturday evening in Clifton, Texas, home of the Bosque Fine Arts Center, which hosts a nationally known Western Art show. For the past three years, I have been able to get work accepted, this year three.
Showing has been one of the greatest experiences for me--learning experience mainly. By far, my most favorite part of going to a show is getting to meet with other artists. With this in mind, I choose carefully which shows I enter. I look up artists whose work I enjoy and see their show schedule as well as magazines and online discussion boards, then I look at who is hosting the show and the judge chosen for that year. There was once I had a friend recommend a show that was billed as one for women artists and by looking at works from previous shows, it looked good. However, when I looked up the judge for that year, I discovered they had chosen a very edgy modern artist who was political. Very clearly, I could tell the judge would most likely not appreciate my Western and historical art celebrating American heritage and skilled gunsmiths.
The Bosque Art Classic is my favorite show to attend and is close enough that I can easily attend the events all weekend long. This year, while speaking to another artist, he pointed out that while he did not receive any awards--neither did I--he did receive a "Red Dot Award." This got me to thinking. I have won awards in the past, but the most fun next to being accepted and attending, is selling a piece. While the judge may not have decided to bestow an award upon my work, to someone else my work was first place as it was the piece they chose to purchase. So this time around, after receiving two "Red Dot Awards," I have come away very happy. (It was also a fun experience to overhear someone say how they wanted one of my pieces but that it had already sold.)
The two pieces that sold:
Showing has been one of the greatest experiences for me--learning experience mainly. By far, my most favorite part of going to a show is getting to meet with other artists. With this in mind, I choose carefully which shows I enter. I look up artists whose work I enjoy and see their show schedule as well as magazines and online discussion boards, then I look at who is hosting the show and the judge chosen for that year. There was once I had a friend recommend a show that was billed as one for women artists and by looking at works from previous shows, it looked good. However, when I looked up the judge for that year, I discovered they had chosen a very edgy modern artist who was political. Very clearly, I could tell the judge would most likely not appreciate my Western and historical art celebrating American heritage and skilled gunsmiths.
The Bosque Art Classic is my favorite show to attend and is close enough that I can easily attend the events all weekend long. This year, while speaking to another artist, he pointed out that while he did not receive any awards--neither did I--he did receive a "Red Dot Award." This got me to thinking. I have won awards in the past, but the most fun next to being accepted and attending, is selling a piece. While the judge may not have decided to bestow an award upon my work, to someone else my work was first place as it was the piece they chose to purchase. So this time around, after receiving two "Red Dot Awards," I have come away very happy. (It was also a fun experience to overhear someone say how they wanted one of my pieces but that it had already sold.)
The two pieces that sold:
Lastly, going to a show always inspires me to go home and get to work. Seeing works of art in person are always much more beneficial than seeing them in a book or online. The textures are clear as well as brush strokes and well... a picture is worth a thousand words. So much can be learned by going to museums that I believe it is a must for all artists to regularly go see art!