Clinton Art and Music Festival, Clinton, NY

Visit Clinton Art and Music Festival



I am participating in the festival this year. It draws many artisans and shoppers each year. Live music is constantly playing during the day. It is just one big Partay!



Please join me. I am setting up with the Central NY Etsy Team.

Great Art resource/advice site

I subscribe to Tony Moffitt's Art World blog and really find him to be very insightful and knowledgeable.

He posts daily on a wide range of subjects from framing to finding a gallery. The best part is it is all FREE! I hate getting a tease and then having to buy a book or pay for a class to get the answers I am looking for. Tony is also open to addressing suggested subjects from his followers!

You can find his blog here: http://tonymoffitt.blogspot.com/

How cool is this?

Sorry to gush, but I just think it is sooo cool to have my art on a Flip Video recorder. If you have never checked out Cafepress.com, you really should. Artists can put their work on different products such as mugs. t-shirts, tile coasters and yes, Flips! You can find the flip here: http://www.cafepress.com/artgiftsbylmr.386048649 There are also many more affordable items featuring this design and lots of other designs too.

Zazzle is another shop like Cafepress. I need to check it out. One thing I have noticed there is you can put your art on sneakers:) Isn't technology grand?

Ta ta for now!

A new LARGE piece for me!

Good Morning! At least it is while I write this. We are having some very large trees trimmed around the house today so wish me luck that I still have a house left when they are done!

I finished this large (for me) painting on 24x18" canvas. Gallery wrapped with deep sides painted for a professional look. I took a photo of one of my iris's a long time ago and came across it recently. I used it as a reference for this piece.

I am having trouble getting the colors right though inthe photo. The iris is more purple than blue-purple and the green is also less blue. Any suggestins would be welcome. I have a digital camera and they tend to 'blue' colors.

I will be adding it to my Etsy shop soon so check it out. http://artbylmr.etsy.com

A little poetry to make you smile (or cringe)!

When your dreams soar, there are no boundaries!

I am not a poet or writer by any means, but here goes.....

'At this Point in my Life' (An artist's Life)

At this point in my life I wonder about things that once seemed so far away.

Will I have enough to live on in my golden years?

And why is my hair so gray?

At this point in my life my endeavors are new.

The lucrative job I no longer do,

Replaced by more creative ventures I thought I'd never pursue.

At this point in my life I seem busier day to day.

Asking how did I ever punch the clock?

When did I have time to play?

At this point in my life I thank God I still have my love.

My husband and my art.

My health and my heart.

My happiness and my friends.

The freedom to start over again!

Summer Art and Craft Fairs or 'What to heck am I doing?"

Am I crazy? Am I nuts? Will I even sell anything? Why am I spending all this money? Why am I doing this to myself?

These are the things I keep asking myself. These are the woes of the first time craft fair participant. I got swept up in the frenzy of a wonderful group I belong to - The Central NY Etsy team. They are having a couple group shows and I am doing one of them. I am also doing one show all alone - Ack!

Reality then sunk in! OMG - I have to have a tent and table covers to the ground and something to hang art on and I need merchandise! I have been frantically ordering Giclee reproductions, backing board, cello bags, display solutions and on and on. I am gobbling up resources giving tips on how to run a great booth and what you need to take with you.

Now that I got that off my chest - I have discovered some great sites with solutions for the artist - even the cheap artist. I know many use peg board and create their own displays. This summer my husband did not need another project so I looked to the web to find me the perfect and reasonably priced art display. I found these grids walls at ABC Target. They are free standing and at $58 for a Z shaped set of 3 walls they were also affordabe. I have seen these in use - My friend Cathy uses them to display her lovely cut paper artwork. I got the idea from her for these grids - Thanks, Cathy!!

I also needed a magnetic board to display magnets on. I turned to my good friend Amazon and found a nice looking large black framed magnetic white board from Board Dudes for $24.

I am not a seamstress by any means so I had no intention of making a table cover that looked nice and fell to the ground as it is recommended ( covers any boxes and other stuff the customers don't need to see). Tablecloth Designs to the rescue! They carry tons of sizes and offer custom sizes too. They make everything to order - even their standard sizes, but I had my order in 2 days for under $40.

I hope this isn't getting too boring, but I wanted to give a shout out to these companies. One last resource I want to mention. I get my giclee prints from iPrintFromHome.com. I love these guys. The quality, color and packaging is ourstanding. The turnaround is super fast and they are very professional! I have only ordered gicless, but they have a large range of products,
including canvas prints. They also offer promotional services for their customers. You can list your upcoming shows on their website and they will also include them in their newsletter that has a large circulation. I could go on and on, but I won't (too late!).

Thanks for reading my rant - let me know what experiences you have had with craft fairs. I would love to hear them.

New Watercolor and a frugal tip from the Cheap artist!

This watercolor was inspired by the beautiful Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. They have gorgeous ceiling displays and this is one of them. Can you say Vegas, Baby! The delicate paper parasols just screamed to be painted in translucent watercolor. You can find this in my etsy shop http://artbylmr.etsy.com.

Being a starving artist, I am always looking to save a buck. I was in Kmart the other day looking for storage bins since we artists have so many supplies everywhere. They have bins that stack, slide and everything else that run 6,7,8$ or more. Just next the the bins there was a pile of white dishpans that cost less than $2. I snatched some of them up. They are a good size, have handles and are solid which is sometimes better than the sides with holes.

Just a little hint from you friendly neighborhood cheap artist!
Thank you very much.