Two paintings and 3 Fused Glass Pieces in two separate Auctions

This past weekend was a weekend of our church festival plus a concert, and both events had their accompanying auctions! Each year our church's annual Fall Festival and our town's Concert 4 the Cure occur on the same weekend. Ron and I are always pulled between the two events - trying to get to both although they're both the same evening. Our family is invested in the Concert 4 the Cure because Lily (my granddaughter who has battled leukemia twice) has worked so hard to raise money for childhood cancer research. All the money raised at Concert 4 the Cure each year goes to Vandy's Children's Hospital - where Lily has been treated since 2008.  This was the first year Lily has missed the Concert - but she missed it because she's away at college! That fact fills me with such happiness that she is able to experience college after all she has been through. My daughter, Lily's mom, is in charge of the silent auction each year, and she made sure I contributed.

So I donated items to the auction/silent auction at each event.

I donated this painting to our church’s Fall Festival. It is a painting of our church, and it was in the live auction. It sold for $250.  One of my best friends bought it, and soon after the auction she texted me a photo of the painting already hanging on a wall in her home. I was so honored! It's the third time I've painted the church - and I hope to paint it again someday. I wrote a poem to go with the painting.

Then, for the Concert 4 the Cure's Silent Auction,  I donated the following painting and fused glass items. Although the paintings and glass pieces were displayed at the concert, the bidding was done online. I was in Georgia and was able to bid on several items from there (not any of my items!  LOL!) I have no idea who bought any of my items.

Here are screen shots of the final bid amount for all four of my donations:

I was so pleased that I was able to contribute to both our church and to the children's hospital through my art. And this was the first time I sold any of my art work. So that's a milestone in my journey.

County Fair Art Results - TWO Blue Ribbons!

Our Williamson County Fair hasn't officially opened yet. It opens tomorrow evening (Friday, 8/2/2019). The past few days have been when all the entries in the competitive events have been due. Tuesday I took in my art entries for the judged art show - three oil paintings and two fused glass items - along with my entry for "country eggs" (Agriculture division) and "food mix in a jar" (Canning division)  Today was the day to enter all the Culinary Arts items - cookies, candy, cakes, pies, breads. I spent most of yesterday and this morning cooking and preparing items for the culinary competitions.

Around lunchtime, I packed up my ELEVEN food submissions and took them to the Ag-Expo center to enter them in their various classes. Once I was finished with that, I walked down to the arena floor to see if the ribbons for the art items had been posted yet, and they had. The first thing I saw was my "Let's do the Twist" painting with no ribbon. Sigh. Then I turned the corner and saw this:



My "He Planted Wildflowers for Me" painting won first place in the Amateur Painting class. I was so excited I didn't even think about checking to see if the fused glass items I'd submitted had won anything. I went to my car where I sent texts to my husband and children telling them about the ribbon. Then I started for home but stopped by a restaurant to grab some lunch first.

Suddenly, I thought of my fused glass submissions, and I knew that if they'd already judged the paintings class, then they'd already judged the Amateur "Other Fine Art" class. So I drove back to the Ag-Expo Center, and went back to the arena floor and found this:

My "slumped" 3-fuses vase won a blue ribbon!  I won a blue ribbon in both classes that I entered!  I am happy.  It's nice to get the compliments of family and friends, but it is also rewarding to get positive feedback from objective sources, too.

Tomorrow night the fair will officially open, and I will go and see if any of my Culinary Arts entries won ribbons.

I should have taken photos of all the food items because I go way overboard! For the Candy Division, I made butter pecan fudge and caramels. For the Cookie Division, I made Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Cookies, Triple Chocolate Brownies, and Almond Spice Cookies. For the Pie Division, I made a pecan pie and a peach cobbler. For the Cake Division, I made a fresh apple cake with caramel drizzle. For the Bread Division, I made garlic/herb biscuits and blueberry orange muffins. Each item was for a different class within its division. 

And tomorrow I will also see how the eggs and the food-mix-in-a-jar that I submitted on Tuesday did. Like I said - I go overboard - but I enjoy it - and I like supporting the local fair; the more entries, the better the competition. And there is something very charming, healthy, and American about a county fair.

Entering Art in our County Fair

Today was the day to enter items in the "Cultural Arts" part of our local county fair. Cultural Arts includes a "Judged Art Show" which has several different classes. Since one can enter three items in each class, I entered three of my paintings in the amateur class 04 for "Painting/Pencil/Charcoal (includes oil acrylic, watercolor, 1 dimension mixed media)".

"At the End of a Road in Tuscany" oil on 12 x 16 linen panel

"Let's do the Twist" oil on 9 x 12 linen panel

"He Planted Wildflowers for Me" oil on 8 x 16 linen panel

I also entered two of my fused glass items in the amateur class 06 for "Other fine art (ifiber, stained glass, fused glass, silk screening, jewelry etc.)"  Here are those two items:

Fused Glass pendant and earrings. Two fusings were necessary to create these glass "beads."

Fused Glass vase. Three fusings were necessary to create this free form vase.

Thursday morning I will submit all my culinary entries to the fair. Then the fair will open on Friday evening. That is when I will find out if I won any ribbons.

Last year I put three of my paintings in the Fair - and didn't win a single ribbon.  I won some for my cooking - even a "Best of Show" for my biscuits. I hope that one of my art offerings will get a ribbon this year. We will find out in just three days.

Update: I peeked at the art work when I took my culinary entries to the fair awhile ago. The fair opens tomorrow evening. I only looked at paintings - didn’t even think about looking at the fused glass.  Here is my part of the amateur painting results:

When I remembered that I’d submitted two fused glass items too, I went back to the fairgrounds and looked. I figured it’s a lot less crowded today because tomorrow night it will be a madhouse. Here is my part of the amateur “other” art results: 

To say I’m pleased with my two blue ribbons would be an understatement!  

Fused Glass - Getting Back into It . . . Somewhat

Wednesday I got back into doing fused glass when I went back to my friend, Margaret, who has a glass studio next to her garage.. It has been a lot of fun designing various projects there. However, I've found it difficult to regularly go there. We've had so much traveling the past few months. And it will be another 3 weeks before I can go again.

Wednesday I saw this platter that I had completed a month or two ago, and since then Margaret had fused it again in her kiln. We decided that it needed to have a "full fuse" in order for the flower designs to more fully fuse onto the clear glass. 

Then I worked on this platter more - adding more leaves, a red bird, a blue bird and a butterfly.  Margaret will put it in the kiln and fuse it before I go there again.

I've been thinking of what I want to work on next. I'm thinking of doing another vase similar to this one - but this time I want to do a design completely my own. This one was fashioned similarly to one that Margaret had done. 

I also want to do more beads. That involves choosing the colors I want and then stacking/gluing glass with those colors together. Then they'll be fired into one big blob with the colors all fused together. Then I'll take a hammer and whack into a bunch of smaller pieces. We'll fuse those - and they form beads. Then I'll select the pieces that I can use for pendants and earrings.