Here I am once again, staying up too late. I am a glutton for punishment, as in NO SLEEP punishment! I get involved in drawing and painting, and don’t want to go to bed!
Anyway I have some good news!
I finished the painting for Anne Bradford’s new children’s book. I know I posted it before, but here it is again, it is a wartime nurse. Anne called me today and asked for it, as they are working on the War pages now. I was proud to say I had finished it a few weeks ago, and I submitted it to her today.
You know, I was so scared to do a demo. I kept thinking “I’m going to do it”. But when the time came closer, I was freaking out! Just like when I was going to do the PERISCOPE demo.
I can’t even start telling you about my demo without showing this pic. It was really funny! I was to do a painting demo yesterday from 10am-12pm. And I got there about 9:30am and no one was at the Arts in Redditch exhibition yet. (It is just to the left of “Vision Express”). This man didn’t have a clue what was coming.
OK, I had all my bags and equipment, and I had to park in the parking garage. So I carried my bags and all the art stuff from my car, and it was getting HEAVY by time I got to my demo area. And I went up to this man and I put a load of change into the bucket. And I asked him if he was staying there for a bit. And he said yes.
So I said “I am so sorry to ask you this but could you possibly keep an eye on my stuff, I just have to go back to the car and it will be just a few minutes and I will be back as soon as I can”.
And you know what? He agreed! So he said ” I will just stand over here”. And he stood inside the ropes!
As you can see, I was terrified. I could feel my knuckles turning white haha.
Cindy’s Demo
Here I am painting away. Once I started painting, I really have to tell you, I got right in “my zone”.
I couldn’t believe the way my fear just vanished. People were walking by, and would back up and have a look at my painting. And they would stop and ask me what medium I use, how long I have been painting, why do I like to paint black and white, why do I like to paint 1920s, etc…
And then I would get everyone’s opinions, which was quite interesting! I gave every person my undivided attention. I took an interest in what they had to say, and you know what? After they finished talking to me, I said “have you had a look in our pop up gallery?” and a lot of them would say “No” and I would tell them about it and would show them it was just around the corner. And most ALL of them were not going in, but they changed their minds and stopped in. I made sure to say “My art is in the back, you can’t miss it, the paintings are 28″x20″ and they are black and white.” I continued to tell them the paintings are of Joan Crawford. Some of the older people knew who I was talking about!
One older couple stopped and talked to me, and I asked “Have you been to the gallery?” And the lady said “I went the other day and I am bringing my husband today, where are your paintings?” And I told her, and they grinned and went right to the gallery. Then came back later and told me how lovely they thought my paintings were!
As a member of Arts in Redditch, if you were exhibiting, you were going to work the pop up gallery. I worked on Wednesday all day and this is one of the other members Lisa Landreth, jewelry maker.
This is Artist Lyn Davies. His art is hanging next to mine. We both had agreed to do a demo on the same day. It was Lyn’s first demo too, and you know what? After the fear left, he LOVED IT!
Artist Mark Pettifer
(and me)
Aw, this is my friend Mark Pettifer. He is so nice! I mean, most of the people in the Arts in Redditch are pretty nice. BUT, Mark is my friend. He and my hubby went to school together! I LOVE his Stonehenge painting! and the ones we are standing by are his. The one above and the one below Stonehenge and the four across the top. I was lucky to work with him that day.
He had some other lovely paintings of New York, if I can find my pics of them I will post them.
This was how I looked after all the fear left. Much more relaxed, I loved the demo. And you know, I didn’t even get a lot of painting done, because people wanted to talk And I enjoyed it so much, I am looking forward to the next one.
Heck, I might even do a demo without being asked hahaha!
Thanks very much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the post.
