Hi y’all! I am busy getting my house clean and finishing up stuff for this weekend. I love celebrating Christmas! Birthdays are so much fun… especially this one! I am pretty sure I posted this song last year, so if you’ve heard it just push the pause button. If not, I hope you are blessed in [...]
Susan Abbott's painting series "Dream Tables" first caught my eye while I was casually flipping through the September issue of Watercolor Artist magazine. I sometimes like the art I see in WA, and sometimes it doesn't interest me much. But one of the things I like about the magazine is that they feature all types of watercolor art, displaying all style facets of the medium and stories about the artists. When I turned the page and saw Susan Abbott's paintings, they didn't immediately hit me over the head. Instead, they crept up on me like a chili pepper that's relatively mild to taste at first, but then quietly, methodically takes over the taste buds. Her paintings are at first a juggernaut study of composition, pattern, and shape that work well as a huge composition. Give it a little longer though and soon you'll find yourself engulfed in all the subtleties. These details don't reward a casual viewer
—it feel like you have found a little treasure every time you happen upon one. The way the shadow dances on a pitcher, or the hyper-real focus of the flowers above the table, which allows the viewer to "feel" the intangible space between the long, tall orchid and the table below it. Susan's patterns and colors play beautifully across the picture scape
—never overwhelming, one color, hue, texture or pattern complimenting the one surrounding it, but also harmonizing with the bigger composition. Her paintings are true ensemble pieces. The whole is made up of all the players working in concert with each other, all making beautiful music together.
Fun and (I am happy to report :) ) busy day today at the
South End Open Market. I tell you I LOVE this side of town! Lived in Boston or Cambridge for most of my life. Now WHY have I not spent time in this vibrant little shoebox-cozy part of town? Let's look forward shall we! I'm going to drag Matt out of Cambridge for a leisurely
South End Saturday one of these weekends. The dog count ALONE here is worth the trip -- so many adorable, sweet, big, tiny, licky-friendly and then also of course the non-chalant, stand-offish doggies, and I love to meet every last one! It's like a big dog party! :)
Weather was nice today -- very warm but not too sticky with intermittent sun and overcast skies. The a.m. was just a little bit harried because we did not have a lot of time to set up our tent and area. It was a race but it all worked out just fine in the end.
The crowds were intermittently thick or moderate at any given moment. We had an aisle spot, so there were a couple of "Now you see them, now you DON'T" types of moments, but in reverse: "Now you don't see them, now you DO!" That was fun and kept us on our toes!
Today, SOWA hosted a group of NYC artisans called
"The {New New}". (The {New New} group is similar in philosophy and concept as the group to which I belong,
Boston Handmade.) I think that having The {New New} here today may have helped to increase foot traffic over a typical summer Sunday. In general, the overall number of vendors was high as well, so it was a very good day to be here,whether vending or shopping or just hanging out! I was not able to do a good walk through, greet our NYC guests and see what kind of cool stuff they were making and selling. I was too busy today. with my own booth, which is a good thing, I can't complain about that but I sure would like to meet the NYC artists some time. For now, I will have to depend on their
Flickr photostream to check out how the day went from their end!
I also did not take too many pics today (
see the photos I did take HERE). I just didn't have many chances. I was able to take a few of my table and a few of my booth mate / sister / jewelry designer
NancyRosetta's. (Those did not require that I leave the booth. It's no wonder I could get a few pics!)
Well,that's my
SOWA report for Sunday, August 9, 2009. I might do one more SOWA date this month ( Aug. 30) . It's not certain yet but I promise to keep you in the loop!
Thank you, Linda! Merry Christmas to you and your family, too!
Hi Margaret!
Thank you for sharing it on FB! That’s perfectly fine with me. I hope you and your family have a fabulous, wonderful, extraordinairy Christmas!!!