Palletteers' First Art Thursday

We participated in our very first Art Thursday on April 8th, upstairs at the Club Comanche, and it was a resounding success! The people who helped make this happen deserve a hearty thank you from the Palletteers: Alma, Marilyn, Brenda, Carolyn, Laura, Ruby, Melinda, Dotsie, and of course, Rudi, Alma's husband who is our best promoter and makes sure we're safe. They brought artwork, helped setup, created or printed flyers, & brought people to the show. Freda couldn't make it but she posted a promo for our show on her Facebook page and a few of our visitors mentioned knowing about our exhibit because they'd seen her post, so she gets kudos too!

Our gallery looked wonderful.. I forgot my camera but Melinda took some pictures. Between the 5 of us who'd brought paintings, we must have had over 100 paintings, in various price ranges, on display. People were impressed. They enjoyed meeting the artists, were interested in hearing about the Palletteers and our artwork, loved having such a great selection at SUCH good prices, and encouraged us to continue our endeavor. Oh, did I mention that we sold some artwork? YESSS!

Our next evening art event at the Comanche will be the Triathlon Jump-Up on Friday, April 30th.

Palletteers at the Club Comanche

We've a new venture: The Club Comanche has invited us to display our artwork in their hotel and use their facility to encourage art and tourism in Christiansted! This developed very quickly: Alma and Marilyn had met with the owner on Thursday morning, a little after lunchtime Alma called to tell me of this exciting new opportunity for our members, and afterwards I emailed everyone to tell them about it. On Friday we discussed it a little more with our group. Friday night was First Friday in Christiansted and our first chance to test the waters. Only Alma, Carolyn and I were available so when we arrived at the Comanche we quickly set out some of our paintings for a spontaneous show upstairs on the second floor of the hotel. Alma gave a quick tour of the facilities available to our group and we couldn't contain our excitement! We discussed all the possibilities of participating in First Fridays, Jump Ups, cruise ship days and other events. What a boon for the Palletteers! What a great way to meet the public and let them know who we are, how much we love our island, and promote local art and our artists! Maybe we would also be instrumental in helping to revive Christiansted again! There weren't a lot of people out Friday evening, so it was slow, but the Blues band across the bridge at the restaurant entertained us while Rudi, Alma's husband, helped us cajole those who did walk by to come in and view our artwork. We made our first (and only) sale to a cute honeymoon couple who wanted a special remembrance, met a few other really nice people, and enjoyed the novelty of the experience. During the evening we found out that a cruise ship was coming to St. Croix Saturday morning. After Rudi escorted us to our cars and I drove back home, I sent out another email to alert everyone of this newest information. Saturday morning around 10AM I dragged my tired old self back to the Club Comanche to join Alma, Elizabeth, Carolyn, Carol, and later Marilyn in doing some plein air painting on the property and letting the passersby know of our art show. It was such a beautiful day that not too many of them wanted to go upstairs. In the Easter spirit, Elizabeth gave away some paintings of Easter flowers she'd done while sitting out on the sidewalk. Her generation of good will was successful because the recipients had huge smiles on their faces as they walked down the street with her paintings clutched in their hands! Upstairs, Alma had been talking to one of the ladies who'd come in and once the lady heard Alma's first name, she immediately supplied Alma's last name and exclaimed that she'd seen her artwork at the garden show and that Alma was one of her favorite artists!! Kudos are almost as good as a sale, eh? Monday is another cruise ship day.. and I think there's another one in on Tuesday!!! We've set a few paramenters for our group: commissions will be on the honor system, the exhibitor must be on the property and is responsible for her own artwork, Alma will be our representative to the owners, & only original paintings will be in our exhibit. We're still playing with what works for us as a group and as individuals, and what we actually want to and can do .. but thus far, we're really happy to be part of this new endeavor and we love the Comanche! The pictures show the entry to the upstairs level, the instant sign I made, the amazing room available for our exhibit & how we set it up Friday night, Marilyn doing a portrait for a couple who'd passed by on Saturday, and some of the other areas available to us.
Ginger

Palletteers Paint Ruins & Labyrinth at Estate Mt. Washington

The utter peace and serenity that Estate Mt. Washington exudes, along with experiencing the newly created labyrinth (by Nancy Ayers), made it the perfect Friday morning painting choice to follow our somewhat hectic, but great, art show weekend. Because several of our snowbirds had returned to their stateside homes this past week, I was surprised at the good turn-out of artists that we had. Although I was the only one who included the labyrinth in my painting, quite a few of the artists took time from their painting to walk and experience it. We had an interesting "show and tell" after which Alma told us all about an exciting new opportunity offered to us in Christiansted (I'll be posting a blog about that this coming week). Most of the group adjourned to lunch at the Sunset Grill. What a great way to spend a morning, eh?!

Art in the Garden, featuring the Palletteers of St. Croix: Supercalifragilisticexpedialidocious!

We held our second annual Art in the Garden show at the St. George Botanical Gardens this past weekend. To identify them, the artists wore silk hibiscus clips in pastel colors along with their name tags while the sellers wore red ones. The Bonsai and Orchid Societies also put up displays that caught the interest of the crowd. We had a good crowd and the home made hors d'oevres were abundant and delicious! The night was a hot one, weatherwise, but we all still managed to enjoy our evening in the limelight. On Sunday a gorgeous display by the Hibiscus Society was added to the mix. What an interesting show! The pictures say it all, beginning with our poster art by Carolyn Roblyer:






































































































I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our show sponsors: TAMARIND: A Better Copy, A Friend, Gary M. Lalor, Francie Whittenburg, & JKC Communications CALABASH: Caribbean Country 93.5, Bill & Helen Gilbert, Innovative, Marshall & Sterling, & Plaza Extra THANK YOU: Cape Air, Caribbean Printing, Diageo, & Dan & Amelia Musser. In addition, a big "thank you" goes to the Botanical Garden members: Sue Ladwig, Monette Booth, David Hamada, and Holly Herold, who were on the show committee; Fran Tobin, who organized the Garden volunteers; Jayne Edwards, who organized the food donations; and Owen & Carol Johnson, who were in charge of the bar. Big kudos go to our own volunteers: Carolyn Roblyer, who donated her original painting for our poster art which was raffled off during the show; my right hand, Emy Thomas; Sondra Catts & Lil Tarby, who were in charge of the "shop"; and show volunteers: Joan Werner, Ruth Ann Hopkins, Elaine Bidelspacher, Deborah Reinhold, Elena Leroux, Gene Dedmond, Dotsie Kagan, Ruby & Tom MacDonald, Jane Caermon Schultz, Marcus Bodio, Pat Packer, Elwin Joseph, Deborah Kramer, Janet Bell, Tom Anderson, Max Blum, Rick Rickenbach, Pat Holloway, Brenda Taylor, Melinda Scott, Carol O’toole, Kitty Olsen, Karol Fenner, Marilyn May, Elizabeth Keith, Leslie, Rickenbach, Alma Winkfield, Kate Kroska, Margaret Berggren, Phyllis Charles, and all of our exhibitors… wow! Because all of you pitched in and did your “thing” we had the best show yet! So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Ginger