Studio Tour A Success!

This past weekend I participated in the Artists Along The Bitterroot Studio Tour for the first time.  I shared studio space with a talented nature photographer, an artistic woman who makes hats, shawls, etc. from her own alpaca's wool, and a creative woman who turns gourds into beautiful sculptural pieces of art.  Their work is impeccable and I was honored to share space with them on the tour.  You can see information about all of the artists---and there are many in the valley!---at our website which is lovely:

www.artistsalongthebitterroot.com

The tour started rather slowly on Friday but I did have some sales and was happy with that.  I was able to recover what I had spent to be a member of AAB and prepare for the tour.  On Saturday we had much better traffic and I did very well with sales.  Sunday was slow again with very few sales for any of us.

I was able to borrow some display panels with lights from my father who used to use them to take his watercolor bird paintings to shows.  They worked great for hanging my art quilts and the lights were definitely a valuable part of the setup as they show off the quilting and detail of my work.  I also had a display rack that I showed in a previous blog post which holds 15 quilts in a small space. 

This was one of the pieces I sold to a very lovely woman named Collette with what I believe was a French accent.  This is a piece I love and she assured me she did too!  It is called "Joy In The Morning". 

  
The tour was extremely enjoyable for me as there were many, many visitors who were highly complimentary about my work.  Many people had never seen art quilts or at least nothing like my work, and they seemed to love everything I had on display---which was a lot!  I am rather prolific and I figured I would get as much displayed as I could so there was a lot to choose from.  I debated about whether or not I should include the small ornaments I make and even the slightly larger mini quilts.  Sometimes it seems people will buy those even though they like the larger work because they are more inexpensive (cheap!).  I did end up showing both and often someone would buy more than one so the sales did add up quickly.   Also, luckily there were a number of patrons who liked my mid-size pieces which is what I make most and have the most of, and I sold four of those. 

Here's another piece that I sold and will miss because I really like it on my own wall and have enjoyed it.   It is called "Autumn Royalty".   It was sold to another artist who does work that I greatly admire so I was thrilled that she and her husband both love the piece. 

 

I am now getting things back in order so I can prepare for my next adventure which is a featured artist exhibit at The Purple Pomegranate gallery in Whitefish, Montana.  This is a beautiful town that gets a lot of tourist/summer traffic so they expect to get quite a crowd at the opening which is July 3.  I plan to be there for the opening and I'm looking forward to seeing how my work does in this new venue.  If it does well I may be able to continue showing some of my work at the gallery.