Mount Dora Art Festival and Other Goings On

Lotus Blossom - February 2014

Okay, so I guess I dropped the ball on keeping the old blog updated, didn't I! But I'm here now. I've had a lot going on. I enjoyed being a part of my first Mount Dora Art Festival. I didn't have a booth, but I was on the main street in Artist Alley painting my heart out! I created the above painting the first day and the two smaller ones below on day two. 

Happy Little Butterfly - February 2014

Happy Little Flowers - February 2014

I've also painted during the Mount Dora 2nd Friday Art Strolls. Here's the one I completed that's shown in the photos from the previous blog entry.

Plenty Of Fish In The Sea - January 2014

And here are a few shots of weekend before last when Bev left me to run her beautiful gallery. She took all of her pieces to South Florida for an art show down there, so she let me move my pieces to the main gallery. Saturday her assistant, Mary, helped, but Sunday it was just me and Joel. I sold a few things of mine and learned a few things, too. It was a really fun experience. I chatted quite a bit with the gallery patrons. During the down times I sketched in my watercolor journal. I don't have photos of that quite yet.

Very sweet gallery patrons that purchased 3 of my prints. 

My artwork on the walls of the main gallery and prints in the Serendipity Gallery.

There are 3 galleries that are a part of Painting Outside The Lines; Artist Alley, Serendipity, and Bev Neal Gallery. My work was hanging in the Bev Neal Gallery on this particular weekend and some of my prints were there, and some were in the Serendipity Gallery.

My painting, In The Deep End, was on the easel as you walk up the stairs.

Vintage bike that holds Bike Festival Posters Bev has in the gallery. She painted the poster images for 2 years in a row.

Panorama of Bev Neal Gallery with my work on the walls. Bev had a couple of hers still hanging, too.

My happy helper hanging out in Bev's office.

And now for some of the other paintings that you can see right now in Artist Alley presented by Painting Outside The Lines Gallery. 

Sea Turtle - January 2014

Butterfly - January 2014

Long Little Doggie - December 2013

Forest Birds - December 2013

.....and many more! I'll share more of them later since this blog entry is already image heavy.

Oh, and I can't remember if I said before, but Bev invited me to stay throughout the month of March. Yay! I'll be there again painting live this Friday during the 2nd Friday Art Stroll form 6-8. Come out and see me if you're local! :-)

Painting In Person at Paint Outside The Lines in Mount Dora, FL

Yesterday evening, as mentioned in my previous blog entry, I painted live in Artist Alley at Painting Outside The Lines Gallery in Mount Dora, FL. I had been nervous about it the whole week, which I believe I also mentioned in the previous post. I was downright scared up until the moment I got there. It's never as bad as you imagine in your head, right? And it wasn't bad at all! It was pretty darn fun, actually! I chatted it up with lots of Paint Outside The Lines and One Flight Up patrons. They seemed to enjoy seeing my work and talking about the other artists exhibiting during the Art Stroll. I handed out cards and had my bio up, which seemed to spark a bit of interest, too. All in all it was a wonderful experience. I couldn't have done it without my support team, though. A large and special THANK YOU goes out to Melissa, Rob, and, of course, Joel. We joked about them being my entourage. Someone asked if there was another artist in the next room painting. When I told them it was my support team they said, "Oh, you have groupies!" I just giggled. No, they're not groupies. But they were very much needed and appreciated. 

I left a 24x24x1.75 work at the gallery as a preview for the upcoming exhibition in February.

Here's a photo of Artist Alley. The windows to the left of the photo look into the room where Melissa, Rob, and Joel were hanging out. The windows were open so I chatted with them during the evening. To the right are the other parts of the gallery.

Here's a shot of me through the window. Joel snapped this one with his iPhone while I wasn't looking. 

Here are the stairs you need to climb to come see me and my work during the month of February. Or now if you'd like to see the painting I have there at the moment. You'll see tons of beautiful work there by other artists, as well.

From outside.

I wish I had better photos to share than these iPhone snapshots. I had my hands full, though.

I hope to see you all come out in February!

xoxo,

Ri

New Society6 Shop

I have opened a new shop over at Society6. Go check it out if you're interested in prints! I only have 3 paintings there at the moment, but I will slowly be adding more as time permits. The weather has to cooperate with me so I can get more photos of my newer paintings. I'll also be adding products, like phone cases, pillows, mugs, etc... I'm sharing my new shop before I intended to share it because they have a free shipping promotion going on right now if you use this link.

If for some reason that link doesn't work, just copy and paste the url below:

http://society6.com/ArtistRi?promo=f92bf9

Happy Hump Day!

(Did you say "hump day" in the camel's voice? I did!)

Courage

As Friday nears my nerves about painting in front of an audience are taking over. Nothing worth having is easy, though, right?! I'll push through.

The image behind the quote is a piece of a painting I'm working on today. I started 3 new ones last night, so I'm rotating between them as they dry.

The quote is by Anais Nin.

xoxo

Ri

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Live Painting January 10th

I'll be painting live and in person during the Mount Dora Art Stroll on January 10th!! Come see me in Artist Alley at Painting Outside The Lines Gallery from 6-8 PM. The address is in the previous post and in the banner to the right.

The image above is a collage of bits and pieces of a work in progress. When it's complete, the original will be available at Painting Outside The Lines Gallery. Prints will be available at FineArtAmerica.com.

I hope everyone is off to a wonderful 2014!! Here are a couple of images that I've yet to share. :-)

Socks from Joel.

Me and my beautiful friend, Melissa.

And a beautiful mess.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My First Gallery Show in Downtown Mount Dora Florida

My first gallery show is coming up this February!!! I will be exhibiting in Artist Alley Exhibit Hall presented by Painting Outside The Lines Gallery. If you've never visited beautiful Mount Dora, Florida and have the means to do so, February is the best time to visit for art lovers. The Mount Dora Art Fest is the best I've ever seen and it takes place the first weekend in February. If you're more of a small events person, they also have an Art Stroll the second Friday of every month. All of the galleries stay open late and a lot of the shops, too. Either way, if you're in the area I would love for you to attend my show! The address is in the poster image above.

Paint Outside The Lines Gallery is such a fun place. You'll see Artist Alley first thing after you go up the stairs to the gallery. It's just to the left of One Flight Up Cafe.

Here's a little video of the gallery owner, Bev Neal, talking about Painting Outside The Lines.

I would love to see some of my blog readers there!! If you visit while I'm not in the gallery tell Bev that Rischa sent you. 

Happy New Year, Blog Readers!! I hope your 2014 is filled with blessings!

xoxo,

Ri

Tracy Verdugo and Paint Mojo St. Petersburg

Tracy doing a demo.

I have been procrastinating writing up this post about Paint Mojo St. Pete since October 22nd, the day we arrived home. I don't know if I can do the experience justice in a simple blog post. Also, my perfectionist tendencies get in the way of me blogging about things that are important to me. This workshop ended up being one of the most memorable experiences of my life! Memorable in the best possible way, of course. I'll just start at the beginning and hopefully I can remember most of what I'd like to talk about. I know I can't remember it all since it has been over a month, but I'm giving myself permission to be okay with that.

So, to start off with I should tell you I wasn't even on the list of participants for this workshop as it filled up before I knew about it. I wrote a comment on Tracy's blog saying that I wish I had known about the St. Pete workshop in time to sign up. She then sent me a message on Facebook asking if I'd like to be added to the wait list. Of course I said, "Yes, please!". I didn't really expect to get into the workshop because I know how much people love her and her work. To my surprise and excitement she sent me an email shortly after that asking if I'd like to take the workshop! Of course I did!! I don't think I slept a wink that night because of the excitement. I called my mother, who promptly shared in my excitement so much that she asked to also be added to the wait list. And guess what! She got in a couple of weeks later! Joel and I decided to make it a family vacation and booked a small (adorable) blue house in Pass A Grille. Pass A Grille is a quaint little place just south of St. Pete. So, long story slightly shorter, Mom, Joel, Kole, the doxies, and I headed Southwest on October 19th to be ready for the workshop the next morning. We were so pleasantly surprised by Pass A Grille and the little house we called home for 4 days. You could look to the left and see the Gulf and look to the right and see the Bay. We were a short walk from each beach! How perfect can you get, right? 

Berkely Beach House where we stayed.

Once we got settled in we walked to the Gulf side of the beach. We collected shells, took photos, drew in the sand, and headed back "home" to get dinner and rest so we'd be ready for the next day.

  

Gulf side of Pass A Grille Beach

The next morning Mom and I took off to Suntan Art Center to get our Paint Mojo on. We stepped in the door to see Tracy and e'Layne's smiling faces first thing. e'Layne was our host for the weekend. Both were so welcoming! Tracy even gave us both a big hug. What a sweetheart she is! e'Layne, too! From there we started setting up our spots in class and meeting our friendly classmates, one by one. I was set up between Mom and the person who would soon become known as my long lost soul sister, Melissa.

Panoramic shot of the classroom.

Once we were all set up and ready to learn, Tracy started class by taking us down to the beach for "Circle Time" in the sand.

Circle Time on the beach.

It was just too perfect of a scene to describe. We were on the beach with like minded creatives and soon to be friends and our view in all directions was extreme beauty. In one direction we had the Don Cesar Hotel, which you just have to see to appreciate, and in the opposite direction is beautiful St. Pete Beach. The weather was as close to perfect as you could ask for and the excitement coming from each of us was just unreal. I was incredibly nervous, because that's just how I am in new situations with a crowd of people. That's just my introvert way. Tracy had us introduce ourselves and explain why we were there. My nerves increased as it got closer to my turn to speak. I kept it short, explaining that I was there to try to loosen up and enjoy the process instead of being so much of a perfectionist that the fun is lost. I wasn't the only one there for that, by the way. Mom went after me and got a laugh by saying she wanted to be a "loose woman". *giggle* Of course she meant in painting, not in life. But you knew that. So Tracy then took over telling us what to expect from class and after that circle time was over. We headed back up to the classroom.

The pink building is The Don Cesar.

The actual class"work" is going to be hard to describe as I don't want to give any of Tracy's class away. You'll have to attend a Paint Mojo to get that kind of detail. I will share a few photos with you, though, as I don't think that will give away her process or techniques.

Mom working on her lovely painting.

The lovely Tracy and I.

Melissa working on her beautiful painting.

Tracy demoing inks.

Tracy's gorgeous finished painting

Me, Mom, and Melissa. Taken by Melissa's husband, Rob.

I was incredibly blessed by everything to do with this weekend. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything at all. I went into the weekend hoping to take home some fancy new art techniques and have some fun, which I did. But I gained much, much more than that. I had an unforgettable creative experience. I was able to share it with Mom. I met a new/old friend in Melissa. We met and were instant old friends. And she lives close enough for us to hang out regularly, so you'll be hearing about her from now on. I met lots of other new forever friends. Seriously, there wasn't a dud in our group. All of them were so kind and generous. I just can't even remember all of the great things about Paint Mojo St. Pete 2013, but I can tell you that it was special in the most awesome of ways. I hope to be able to do it again when Tracy returns to the United States.

I worked on my painting more once I got home. Here's how it looks now.

Thank you, Tracy, e'Layne, and anyone else having to do with bringing the weekend together! I hope to see you all again soon!