A fun bunch of artists met in Old Washington for a day of still life painting.  The theme was musical instruments.  We had a banjo, mandolin and guitar as models.

Betsy Adams working in pastel.

Philip Saunders sketching with pastel.

Mary-Louise Dean working in oil.

Ruvonna Bevard painting in acrylic.

Ken Swinson worked on a monotype of each instrument.  You can see a short video of his prints going through the press below:

if you don’t see the video above, follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbQVUSMFOwQ

We have had a great weekend at ORVAG with Frontier Christmas.  Artist’s showing their creative work,  the smells and sounds of the Holiday’s, good friends stopping by to shop, chat, enjoy the spirit of the season and well wishings to all.  If you left before the bagpiper arrived, he was great and you missed a treat.  The Guild will be open on the 9th and the 16th from 1:00-7:00 pm  for all of the community and members to get together and share in the “Holiday Spirit”.  Refreshments will be served. 

It was great news to hear that Betsy Baltzer won first place overall for Fine Art at last week’s show at the Morehead Art Guild’s annual art competition.  The painting – “It’s Good To Be Queen” won Baltzer the title.  Betsy is an artist living in Maysville, KY, and one of the founding members of the Ohio River Valley Artist Guild.

Congratulations Betsy!

I heard that a few other guild members took home awards.  I don’t know the details, but the comittee that sends the guild’s press releases to the paper should find out and let the whole community know.   We are very proud of them.

First, thanks everyone who participated in the Big Read Art show. There was a good turnout, and everyone seemed impressed with all of the talent in our community.

I have to leave town Wednesday, and will not be able to moderate our monthly critique on our normal date and time, so let’s reschedule for Thursday, October 27 at 6pm.

This will also be a good opportunity to have the building open to the public so that anyone who missed the reception can still see the art show. Can someone let the teachers and students know that the building will be open until 7pmon thursday.

Betsy Baltzer has offered to be in the building for the Kentucky Arts Council Arts District Group’s visit and until critique. (1-6pm) If anyone else can be there, it would make it easier on her.

If you have not been to one of our critiques, Thursday will be a good time to start. Once a month, our local artists meet up to share and talk about their latest work. You don’t have to bring anything to enjoy the conversation. As an artist, I have found these meet ups a good opportunity to get advice on new work.

Please use the blog to leave a comment or ask a question about Thursday.

Some photos from our October Still Life Painting session

Our Still Life for this month…my favorite table with pumpkins and a guitar

Mary-Louise Dean with her painting

Rob Weingartner with his painting

Ken Swinson with his painting

We have been meeting every second Wednesday at the guild to paint still life. Each month, a different artist sets up a still life…providing a different style.
We meet at noon, and everyone is welcome!

Thanks everyone for working together and creating such a great art show. I put a few video clips together to let others see what they missed!

Here is the plan of the Rosemary Clooney Festival Weekend: We have been given the Conference Center to use from Fri. 9/25 through Sat.9/26.
Fri. hours are from 5-8p.m. and Sat. hours are from 10am-5pm. We must come up with a floor plan for the exhibit. Therefore we need to know exactly how many artists are planning to participate.
Visual artists will need to bring their own hanging panels.  Any tables you may need for small prints, sales/breceipts, etc. will be set up for you if you let me know! All artists should plan to set up  their art on Thurs, afternoon 9/24 and take down on Monday, 9/28. I will be here to help with all the preliminary arrangements, but Jim and I are leaving for Charleston SC early 9/24. Toby will be communicating with the potters and Ken with the  visual artists. Duff Giffen will delegate the key to the conference center to either Toby or Ken.  The City is doing all the set-up of tables and area arrangements for us.  It is the busiest and most popular weekend of the year in Maysville.  The city is also including the art show in all of its advertisements and publicity for the weekend.  If I have not already heard from you – tomorrow is the deadline.  I will be calling Pam, the Conference Center coordinator and setting up a meetin with her this week.  Stay tuned to this site for more details.  Lastly – potters, contact Toby if you want to display your beautiful work – it is a great opportunity!

The weather forecast was just right, so I thought it would be fun to have an artist meet up .

I did not give much advance notice, but was joined by Carolyn Boatman, Mollie Beusterien, Barb Clarke, Sabrina and Sherry Dockery, Sue Gorman, Donna Huber, Russell and Mary Hughes, Kathy Johnson, and Joni Powers .

We all showed up at different times, scattered around town and them met up for lunch.

Jeff Wendling from the Ledger Independent took a nice photo of us at work. Click here to see his photo

I missed a great photo opportunity while we were having a picnic beside the river…I was too busy enjoying the good company and Barb’s fresh baked blueberry lemon bars.

Thanks everyone who came out! I love these sort of activities, and i think everyone else had a good time, so I am planning to do more.

What kinds of activities would you like to do?

I am not very sharp in the morning, but here is my recap of today’s meeting at the library:

Robert McBride gave a presentation about the transformation of Bellows Falls, VT. After the closing of its mills, the economically challenged New England town considered becoming a dump for nuclear waste. After moving to Bellows Falls, Mr. McBride (an artist) became an active member of his community, using art to make a difference in his neighborhood.

Robert described many of the things he and his community did to transform their neighborhood by bringing the arts into their district. You can read more about what they did at their website: http://www.ramp-vt.org

The basic message I took from his presentation was that creative thinkers make a difference in their community. Creative planners attract creativity…whiny planners attract whiners to their community.

After Robert’s presentation, we were introduced to Suzanne Gray, the executive staff advisor for the Kentucky Arts Council. Suzanne explained how we were chosen for the grant. After the meeting, a few of the artists had the opportunity to ask Suzanne if it would be feasible to use a portion of the grant to bring our local art guild downtown as part of a “study”. She said that it was possible. At this stage of the process, we are supposed to come up with a few ideas that would work as part of a long term and sustainable program.

I believe the “study” is in line with the vision of the Cultural Arts District, and I hope it “makes the cut” when the ideas are decided by the board. We are supposed to take our ideas to Claudia, who will represent us (the visual artists) at the board meetings. Mike Thomas, the council’s leader, will represent the decisions of the board. Mike Thomas said we are also welcome to approach him directly.

The turnout at the 8am presentation was outstanding! A very diverse group, representing different parts of our community was in attendance. I am proud to say the visual arts were well represented, with at least 10 of us at the meeting!

After the meeting, we were invited to join Mr. McBride and Mrs. Gray for a tour of the city’s cultural arts district. I have never seen the Russell Theatre or Cox building…both amazing structures with great potential. I would like to share a few ideas of how the visual artists can help and participate in the restoration of these great buildings…later (perhaps on our blog)

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I was not very alert during the meeting, so any additional comments+corrections would be a great help for those who missed the meeting.

On a similar note:

While touring the buildings, Doug Hendrickson approached me about offering the artists a window space to display artwork. During his presentation, Mr. McBride suggested that artwork in an unused window brings a creative energy to a neighborhood (and gets the attention of arts minded visitors). We should take advantage of this opportunity ASAP.

Mr. Hendrickson also mentioned that we (ORVAG) have been awarded $4000 from the Hayswood Foundation. To receive the money, we need to come up with the matching funds. I do not know much about this, but think we should discuss it at our next board meeting.

Finally,
The city is getting ready to print their calendar of events for July-December. If we want to take advantage of the free publicity, we need to provide them with dates for our upcoming events:
auction?, fall art walk?, winter art sale? I was given the impression that there is not much time to let them know.

FCCA First Annual Celebration of the Arts application deadline has been extended.  The deadline for visual artists to participate in the festival is June 30th.  We also eased up on some requirements.  You do not need to have a tent, but you will be fully responsible for your artwork if bad weather occurs.  You can submit a photograph in place of the digital request.  The application fee has been dropped.   The show will be only one day Saturday September 12th.  The space fee is $25 and your work will be juried.  We would like you to be one of originating artists for the festival and help us grow this event.  The day will be filled with art and Jazz.  Contact phone number 606-356-1357.