Newport Peninsula Art Exhibition

I survived another week of a plein air competition at Newport Peninsula, barely. This was a tough one to do on my muscles and bones. We had a Fine Art Outdoor Show last weekend in addition to the juried exhibition. Friday evening, the 12th about 60 artists had a great time and awards were given. I had a work juried into the show, it felt good to be recognized by Cynthia Britain the esteemed judge of this show. It is the Lido Theatre Night and I show it here. SOLD I also show an image of it on location. It was a unique experience to me to paint at night, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Presently, it is hanging at the new Rainey Fine Art Gallery on Balboa Blvd and will be moved to the Newport Nautical Harbor Museum as works sell there. There were so many entries that there wasn't room in the museum for all 80 entries. On the weekend, the whole lot of us artists had such a good time relating to each other while sales were very slow. One of my neighbor artists took a picture of me in front of my booth. We seemed to become a family that weekend, the SOCALPAPA association is a loving group of artists. The Balboa Fun Zone as you see the ferris wheel in the background did not bring out the art collectors in droves, it brought out lookie loos I called them. Still the carnival type atmosphere with carousel music made us feel festive and the food all around was great! A large slice of pizza cost $2.50, there were funnel cakes, ice cream, so we all ate too much! Now I must lose 10 lbs, it's the start of an exercise program for me. After almost a week of trying to get some rest (this show drained me) I saw a Jean Stern lecture on early California Impressionists that lifted my spirits immensely. I went painting yesterday at the Mission San Juan Capistrano with unbridled joy. I will place a post with pictures on my latest 'waterlilies dream' painting later.... bye for now, Esther