SCVWS "Fresh Start" Show At Sunnyvale Art Gallery

Franken Vine

Wurzburg, Germany

"Me and Matisse" hanging in the "Fresh Start" show

Part of one gallery
Works on Paper

Entering one gallery
Works on canvas

I spent about 6 hours at the Sunnyvale Art Gallery, 251 West El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, processing my entries and hanging the show with a small team of dedicated members from the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society. What a spacious and interesting gallery. The Kimm family has a flower shop, coffee house with two spacious sit-down areas, an art store, and 3 large gallery spaces. SCVWS has two of the spaces for the Fresh Start show for the month of March. Serendipity has 3 members of the society doing a private showing next to us in the third Gallery: Karen Wong, Stephanie Lam, and Connie Guidotti. Karen is incoming President and Connie is a member of my critique group. I also know Stephanie slightly from the Betsy Dillard Stroud workshop.

Most fun was Jane Ferguson's delighted reaction to my painting of her, "Me and Matisse." We hung it next to her piece that was featured on the show publicity flyer. Jane is one of the finest artists in our society, so I was pleased that she loved the painting. When she saw the card I made of it in the sale rack, she wanted to buy it. I told her that I would bring her one as small gift. Terri Hill and many others gave me positive feedback on the piece.

Our hanging crew worked from 2 to 7 hanging art for 62 artists, most of whom entered two framed pieces each. We allow watermedia, so acrylic on canvas and collage are accepted into our shows. One of the walls has the watermedia works and it's quite stunning. We were pretty tired when we finished, but very pleased with the results. I am looking forward to our festive reception on March 6 at 6 to 8 p.m.. Ya'all come down, now.

I promised to show you my fourth piece that I placed in the matted, unframed art bins. Franken Vine was painted from a photo I took when Bob and I visited Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium a few years ago. As we traveled, we sample specialty wines that are generally limited to local distribution. Franken wine is made in the Franken region south of Frankfurt along the Main River. We chose to make our first stop Wurzburg, which is not a common tourist stop. While there we visited the old Marionberg fortress. We walked down the hill via paths through the ancient vineyard. The September foliage was colorful and I lay on the ground to take a snapshot. "Franken Vine" is a play on words for Franken wine.