Kutztown Folk Festival 2009 – Day 4

This is the first day of this long show that I begin to feel the strain. I don’t do any other show that is longer than 3 days, so the fourth one feels odd. An early crowd provided some quick interaction and a sale to a woman and her two daughters (each selecting 2 prints).

An afternoon thunderstorm had everyone heading for cover which was fine as that brought them into our building. When it finally ended, the sun came out strong and the air cooled quite a bit. By then most people seemingly left the fairgrounds.

The image that was selected today for first sale was of a chipmunk and is titled Sitting Pretty. I’ve always found chipmunks difficult to photography unless I can establish one that is repeating a particular behavior. This guy would run along the fence and stop briefly at this spot before heading on. This gave me time to pre-compose for his return.

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Kutztown Folk Festival 2009 – Day 3

I didn’t think we could have had a nicer day than yesterday, but today’s weather was even better. I had a couple current owners of my work come back to pick out new work for their homes. I also got to meet a few people in person who I only knew by name or reference.

Today’s first purchase was of a framed print – Back Road. This is an image I made here in Bucks County, PA and which has also been published in an Audubon Calendar and a coffee-table book on Bucks County. It seems to speak to different people regardless of where they associate the road being. I like the print more than the the rendering below.

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Kutztown Folk Festival 2009 – Day 2

A bit warmer than yesterday and a large crowd. Spoke with quite a few out-of-staters as well. Had an interesting conversation with an 8 yr. old boy about chiaroscuro, well he brought it up actually. I wasn’t sure of the correct pronunciation so asked another artist in our building who couldn’t recall either, so I went to my neighbor outside our building who called his art-teacher daughter….

Anyway, the piece that was selected first today is one entitled Delicate Balance. It’s an image I made in Bucks County, PA.

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Kutztown Folk Festival 2009 – Day 1

The first day at the festival was a breezy, comfortable day. Everything went smoothly and I was pleased with the response to my work, especially newer images made this past winter. One such new image represented my first sale of the day. A couple ordered an 11×14 matted print of the image I titled Icy Stare. This is an image of a Sharp-shinned Hawk that I made while in a blind. It was a day after an ice storm had hit us here in Bucks County, Pa and the branches were still leaden with the crystal coating.

I had been offereing this piece as an 8×10 print and the couple buying it wanted a larger print. I was able to accomadate them as I had not limited my entire edition to the 8×10 size.

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Kutztown Folk Festival – June 27, 2009

The starting date for the marathon that is The Kutztown Folk Festival  starts this Saturday, June 27 and runs through July 5. This is my 4th year doing this show and I will again be in building A. I look forward to this event as the mid-point of my show year and as a venue to offer my work to new and existing patrons. This is really quite an event, well run, and loads of fun. What’s also special is the quality and variety of craft and fine arts available.

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Canopy, Walls, and Studio

These are the two primary elements of displaying work at art and fine craft shows – the canopy and the walls. For outdoor shows I set up a water-proof canopy made by Craft Hut (no longer in business). This canopy has a strong frame, sides and roof . The roof has a translucent section down the middle to allow more light in (a must have). It takes me about a half hour to totally put it up if I work fast. I’ve gotten good at it. I weight the four legs with 40 lb sand bags (still not enough in some circumstances).

The display walls are made by ProPanels and are a medium gray tone. They are light weight and come in two pieces (top and bottom). Easily configurable, I can set them up in my canopy or at an in-door show in just about any shape space I’m given. They store in my show trailer easily and are somewhat weather resistant. Like with the canopy, you get what you pay for.

My studio space is a converted dining room which was rarely used anyway. We put French doors in the entry archway and furnished it as I needed to do matting and framing. I would love something bigger (twice the size would be a good start), but I make do. I have also taken over a bedroom for additional office space, printing and storage. Yikes!

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The Nut

On Monday of this week I had a good outing to a favorite haunt, Peace Valley Park, Doylestown, PA. This has been my go-to spot for 20 years. In that time, I have rarely made an image of a squirrel that I was happy with. I mean really, a squirrel, there must be a million of them at this park.

Monday morning was overcast, perfect. I was carrying a Canon EF 500mm f4 L IS lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on a Canon EOS 1D Mark II camera. So my total framing was equivalent to 910mm! Seems like overkill for a squirrel. My experience with squirrels is that they are pretty shy guys, so the 910mm “reach” is just what I needed.

This squirrel picked a nice spot to have a nut, a red bench near a rustic fence. With such a narrow point of view from my telephoto combo, I was able to position myself to place some garden flowers in the background. More color! The way squirrels hold and manipulate their food is very human-like and so automatically interesting. Alright, they’re cute.

Nice place for a nut

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In Between

This time in June is my in-between time. That is the time between the Peddler’s Village Fine Art and Craft Show (a favorite of mine) and the marathon show, The Kutztown Folk Festival (9 days long).  During this time, I am working on a couple orders received at Peddler’s Village and preparing for the Kutztown event by printing, matting and framing.

During these 3 weeks, I’ll also have a Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen picnic, lunch with a couple artist friends, time to try printing some images that have been waiting for my attention, and getting into the field to create some new work. I’ve also been able to watch a few Phillies games on our new Fios system (I’m likin it), and get some needed yard work done. I’m also hoping to start making still-life  images in a mini-studio space in my home.

Last week I got out during a light rain to photograph at a park about an hour from me. There were some green frogs in a pond feature there and at least one allowed a close approach as long as I stayed low to the ground. These guys have a lot of character!

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Lots of Rain

I’m not complaining because I’ve had fine weather for my 3 outdoor shows so far this year, but we have had a lot of rainy days in these parts. I like water drops as subject matter though and have taken this opportunity to do some imagery in the front garden. I find water drops very sensual, they add a dimension to an image that is both visual and tactile. The oxeye daisies have really popped in the garden and I have always been attracted to the combination of white and yellow (the flower’s center color).

This image was made with a Canon 40D and Canon EF 100mm f2.8 macro lens wide open and hand held. The image has rather abstract features to it, with it’s limited depth-of-field and rather graphic composition.

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Peddler’s Village 2009 – Recap

This year’s show had great weather, such a nice change from last year’s 110 degree heat index temps. I was in a new space near friends, which made it a fun weekend as well. I had several previous patrons come back this year and select new pieces. It was great to see several familiar faces I hadn’t seen in years. Thanks all for your support.

I was pleased to receive a $300 2nd Place in the Photography category at the show. The selection was made by 4 judges with various backgrounds. It is impossible to know how judges will respond to work, but I admit to hanging work different on the day of the judging.

To cap a really nice weekend event, I was set up near the soft pretzel cart and so was in line to receive a couple free braided pretzels that were left at the end of the day on Sunday. Always good to bring home something for my daughter (last show it was a 6-pack of Whoopie Pies).

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