Surprise!

The end of March I visited Savannah, Georgia. One day George and I explored the city and came upon a series of galleries where the individual artists were painting. What a treat to go into galleries not only to see art up close but also to meet the artists.

I had the pleasure of spending time with Alix Baptiste and delight in viewing his exquisite paintings. He is a self-taught artist and creates paintings of his home in Haiti. We had a great conversation while he was finishing a painting which was already sold. I fell in love with the painting entitled, "Eggplant Harvest".

Alix wanted me to have it, so the bartering went on....



And a close up...


Even though he was very generous, my budget was not. I left the gallery feeling embarrassed having entered in the bartering process. Before we left that day in Savannah, George returned to get a business card from Alix. Me, on the other hand, could not even go into the gallery to face him again.

George returned to Washington recently and to MY SURPRISE gifted me with Alix's painting! Need I say, I was overjoyed?!

The painting is displayed prominently in my living room where I get to enJOY it each time I enter the room and lose myself in its beauty and charm.

Thank you, Alix.

AND, thank you George!!!

Sidney Art Gallery

If you are interested in visiting a quaint little museum and gallery, head to Port Orchard, Washington.

The art association and museum are dedicated to preserving the local history and fostering the fine arts. There are three buildings; The Log Cabin Museum, The Sidney Museum, and The Sidney Art Gallery.

This May two of my watercolor paintings will be on exhibit in the Sidney Art Gallery. Here is a preview for those of you not able to visit.

Joanne Osband
"Iris Family"
watercolor
Joanne Osband
"Freckles"
watercolor

The Sidney Art Gallery is open Tuesdays-Saturday 11AM to 4PM and Sundays 1-4PM.

The address: 202 Sidney Avenue in Port Orchard, WA 98366.

Have You Been To An Art Museum Lately?

When was the last time you visiting an Art Museum or Gallery?

Art Museums and Galleries are ranked according to the number of visitors. This popularity contest seems to designated the best art museums.

How many of these have you been to?


The top art galleries and museums in 2009, based on their annual visitor numbers are as follows.

1. 8,500,000 Louvre Paris
2. 5,569,981 British Museum, London
3. 4,891,450 Metropolitan Museum of Art
4. 4,780,030 National Gallery, London
5. 4,747,537 Tate Modern, London
6. 4,605,606 National Gallery of Art, Washington
7. 3,530,000 Centre Pompidou, Paris
8. 3,022,012 Musée d'Orsay, Paris
9. 2,763,094 Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
10. 2,730,204 National Museum of Korea, Seoul
11. 2,672,761 Museum of Modern Art, New York
12. 2,574,804 Taiwan Palace Museum, Taiwan
13. 2,426,203 State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
14. 2,273,634 Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo
15. 2,269,900 Victoria and Albert Museum, London
16. 2,087,415 Reina Sofía, Madrid
17. 1,961,843 National Portrait Gallery, London
18. 1,846,889 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
19. 1,840,812 De Young Museum, San Francisco
20. 1,572,171 Moscow Kremlin Museum, Moscow
21. 1,530,318 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
22. 1,513,249 National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
23. 1,501,837 Tate Britain, London
24. 1,500,000 Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
25. 1,496,438 Musée Quai Branly, Paris
26. 1,451,139 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
27. 1,368,096 Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow
28. 1,312,762 Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
29. 1,300,000 Children's Museum, Indianopolis
30. 1,283,401 State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

I have been to five of these; Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, Museum of Modern Art, and the De Young Museum. Looks like London would be a great place to travel inorder to view good art.

If you are interested in more statistics, including which art exhibits were most popular, you can find more information from The Art Newspaper's annual review of art galleries and museums and the exhibitions held around the world in 2009.

Excerpt from "Starving" to Successful

Jason Horejs' new book, "Starving" to Successful | The Artist's Guide to Getting into Galleries and Selling More Art was written to help artist approach galleries in an organized, systematic and professional way. The book is newly published and here is an excerpt:

Mistake #1: Presenting an inconsistent body of work.

Artists generally love their freedom. They want to experiment. They love a challenge. They crave variety. All good things, except when you are presenting your work to a gallery.

The work you present to a gallery needs to be unified. It doesn't need to be repetitive or formulaic, but it must present you as a consistent artist with a clear vision.

Often I feel I am looking at the work of multiple artists as I review a single portfolio. To avoid this problem you need to find focus in your work.

If you work in several media and a variety of styles, focus on just one for the next 6-12 months. Create a body of work that feels like a "series". Once you have 20-25 gallery-ready pieces in this series, you will be ready to approach a gallery.

You can further create consistency by presenting the work in a consistent way. Use similar frames for paintings and photographs, similar bases for sculpture, similar settings for artistic jewelry. Make it very clear all of the work is by the same artist.

If you simply can't rein your style in, consider creating multiple portfolios, one for each style.

Don't confuse the galleries you approach with multiple styles in your portfolio.



Good advice; I ordered his book.