Barbara J Carter

I had a great show last weekend in Studio City, CA. Even though I was pretty busy, I took a few minutes to wander around the show and snap some photos.

The show is held every year in the same location, in Moorpark Park at the intersection of Moorpark Street and Laurel Canyon Blvd in Studio City, CA. It’s a very nice grassy park with huge mature pine trees providing welcome shade.

You can see all the trees in the background.

This show includes a very wide variety of art and craft media. There’s something for everyone here, from inexpensive body-care products to the very best fine art and fine craft available in southern California. Here (above) you can see some gorgeous high-end ceramics, on the right.

The atmosphere at this show is relaxed. It’s a fun day out for friends and family, looking at art, shopping, people-watching, and munching on some snacks from the food booths. The park comes equipped with many picnic tables, so relaxation and rest is right at hand when the shopping gets too intense. There’s also an enclosed playground for children, which was well-used all weekend.

There’s my booth, above. I was located at the far end of the show. At first I was afraid it wouldn’t be a very good location, being so far off the main paths, but lots of people found me anyway. And my edge location gave me a little more space to spread out. So in the end it worked out quite well.

See you at my next show!

I am now halfway through my 4-show blitz - four shows in a row. (You can see my current show schedule here.) I seem to be surviving better than I anticipated, but it’s definitely hard work.

Here I am at last weekend’s show in Calabasas, CA:

The Calabasas show went quite well. The weather was perfect! Lots of people stopped by and commented on my work, which is always fun for me. I love that I get to interact with so many people from all different walks of life. The one common denominator is that they all like my work! After all, anyone who doesn’t like it will wander off and look at something else they like better.

The various reactions people have to my work, whether it’s “wow” or “that’s different,” help me recharge my batteries to get back to the studio and paint more.

Oh yes, some people also purchased my paintings. That is truly the ultimate compliment, and I am deeply grateful to each one of them. Their purchases make it possible for me to keep doing this.

See you at my next two shows!

It’s spring, and the 2008 art festival season has begun!

These are the next few shows I’ll be exhibiting in (all are in Southern California):

• April 26-27: ArtWalk San Diego
• May 3-4: Calabasas Fine Arts Festival
• May 10-11: Studio City Rotary Spring Art Festival
• May 17-18: Sierra Madre Art Fair

For full details, see my show schedule page.

Four shows in a row seems a bit much! The thing is, I’m still figuring out which are the best shows for me, so I need to try them all. Maybe next year I can be a little more selective!

See you at the festival!

This weekend, Feb 16-18, 2008, I’ll be showing my paintings in Palm Springs.

If you happen to be in the area, please stop by and say hi!

The show is all 3 days of Presidents’ Day weekend, Saturday through Monday. It’s held in Frances Stevens Park, 538 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA. It runs 10am to 4pm all three days. The show is easy to see from Palm Canyon Drive, just look for the white tents.

There will be about 120 artists, exhibiting work ranging from paintings to pottery to blown glass to jewelry. The quality of work at this show is usually quite high.

The park itself is worth a visit just to see its spectacular kinetic-sculpture fountain (which, on windy days, tosses water right across the sidewalk).

I’ll be in the middle of the big grassy area. A safe distance from the exuberant fountain.

Over the weekend I visited two art fairs in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Art Show, and ArtLA. The two shows were a study in contrasts.

These are fairs that art galleries exhibit in. Like Art Basel Miami Beach, but smaller. Each exhibiting gallery shows selected works by its artists.

Summary: go to the Los Angeles Art Show, and avoid ArtLA. (And Miami has nothing to fear.)

The Los Angeles Art Show

I visited the Los Angeles Art Show on Friday, when crowds were delightfully light. Of the 120-ish galleries exhibiting, some showed very traditional work (realism, landscapes, still-lifes, etc), some showed Impressionist work, and some showed contemporary work. More than a few showed work by dead artists, some of it by the biggest names (Picasso, Chagall, Miro, and Matisse, among others). Some of the work was highly abstract. Some was a little too conceptual for me, but I could still appreciate the skill and craftsmanship. I saw some lovely abstract encaustic work, which I’m always strongly attracted to, as well as layered works in resin, which has a similar effect on me. Lots of Early California work, which is always interesting to see. I even got to see one or two Pointillist works. But of course, I’m always happiest looking at work by living artists, and there was plenty of that too.

Here’s a wall of work by various artists from the George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles:

I particularly liked the freeway piece. Didn’t write down the artist’s name, sorry.

The showstopper for me was an abstract piece by elderly but still living artist Frank Taira, exhibited by the Sullivan-Goss Gallery (Santa Barbara, CA). The painting dates, I believe, from 1960. The complexity of the edges and shapes revealed by the myriad colorful brushstrokes kept me coming back, and finally I requested permission to photograph the piece. It’s about 5 feet wide:

I think you can see why I was so intrigued with this painting, given my penchant for bright colors, pointillism, and abstraction. This painting alone made the trip worth my while.

ArtLA

On Saturday I visited ArtLA. I was very disappointed.

Heavy crowds of twig-thin Hollywood-wannabees clogged the narrow aisles and obscured the art from those of us trying to look at the work. Loud noises were blasting through the echoing space, no doubt someone’s idea of an atmospheric soundscape, but it unfortunately sounded like an athsmatic wheezing into a microphone. I persevered. I was there to see the art, not “see and be seen”.

Unfortunately my perseverance was not paid off. Most of the art on display was very low-skill stuff. It looked like a bunch of last minute late-night art school projects. I’m sure it was meant to be highly conceptual, but mostly it came off as excruciatingly self-absorbed and/or very poorly executed. (Do I care which U.S. states some art-school graduate traveled to in the last 3 years? Are badly drawn cartoons of the presidential candidates necessary? Are goofy masks placed on the seats of childrens’ bicycles really that meaningful?)

One exception, and it really stood out for me, was Jonathon Runcio’s sculptural work exhibited by a San Francisco gallery called Ratio 3. This work really belonged over at the other show. It was well executed, balanced, intriguing, and an unusual use of materials. Oh, and colorful too. I always enjoy that.

This photo fails to show the 3-dimensionality of the work and its fascinating light-capturing qualities, but at least you can see the colors. Photo stolen shamelessly from the ArtLA catalog. I couldn’t bring myself to take photos at the actual event.

I was invited to exhibit some of my paintings in Monrovia after I participated in an arts and crafts fair there. I figured why not? I don’t have any other shows right now.

5 of my paintings are on exhibit in Focus One Credit Union, 404 E. Huntington Drive, Monrovia, CA.

They’ll be up through the end of 2007. Feel free to go take a look if you’re in the area!