Art Shopping Fair - October 2011

Four batiks made for the Art Shopping Fair at the Carousel du Louvre in Paris.
I decided to change size (140 x 45cm; and 40 x 85cm) and format, and also to stretch them like painting canvases.

It was an interesting but tiring experience.  Hundreds of artists participating, so I walked quite a bit and got to see what other contemporary artists are doing.  An immense variety.. I guess there was art to cater to every taste there.
A LOT of colour, a surprising amount of art using collage... may be the current trend.

she's tied up in 'nice'

on cotton
60 x 63cm
_____________________

the thought of how sometimes you get imprisoned in being the 'nice' person you're supposed to be.

rooftops

on cotton
41 x 70cm

Competition - Cabanon de Haut Beylière

The organisers of the Arts et Vigne festival in Chatillon also held a competition for the participating artists.

The theme was 'Le Cabanon e Haut Beylière' - one of the stone cabins in the vineyards of this region.  Particularly interesting because it is 2 storeyed, and has a 4 sided roof.  It is also in the vineyard that produces te best white wine of this region - Le Clos de Beylière!

I won second place with this batik.

batik on cotton

43 x 44cm

Festival Arts et Vigne - Chatillon en Diois, France

I have just returned after participating in the week-long Art and Wine festival in the medieval village of Chatillon en Diois, in the Drôme region of France.

I was a really good experience, and a very full and busy week.  80 participating artists, exhibiting in 52 'galleries'.  The galleries are the ground floors / basements of houses that are graciously lent by the village inhabitants.  Along with the wide variety of art exhibitions (painters, sculptors, photographers and artisans), they had also organised various activities and performances durin the week.

I was sharing my gallery with a water-colour artist specialised in on-site paintings of mountain scenes.

Luckily, I was able to do demonstrations and work on a few small batiks during the festival.. the week would have seemed a little too long otherwise; during summer holidays, people don't usually do 'cultural' activities in the mornings :) ; and the act of sitting around 'waiting' is not something I'm comfortable doing.
Generally afternoons and evenings were much busier; and we had a couple of nocturnal days - open until 11:30pm.

Most people don't know of what batik is, or if they do, in France atleast, they know it as a clothing fabric from Africa.  A few people who have travelled to Indonesia have visited the batik artisans there.  But almost everyones main reaction was 'we didn't know this kind of work was possible with batik'.
Ofcourse, I also spent a lot of time explaining what batik was.. over time I settled on a basic explanation, which would then be detailed more for those people who showed more curiosity.  It helped that I had made the explanatory board, with the samples.. I realise that people like reading.

So, 2 new experiences for me - I had to talk; and I had to work under the scrutiny of many eyes.

I also managed to sell several batiks, including 3 of the demonstration ones made while I was there.  So, that in itself is also gratifying.  As is the fact that I won second place in the competition for the partipating artists.  See the next post!

Overall - an event I will happily participate in next year, if things work out!

the week before

A week before I leave for Chatillon to participate in the local art fair.  As usual I'm in the middle of framing, and trying to oragnise things.  On my to-do list : finish framing, print visiting cards, lighting, pricing..  / and the little stress factors : will I get it done in time, is there enough room in the car etc etc..

I've been having fun with 'mottling' the dyes.  I vary between dip dying, painting on dyes, splashing, finger painting, rubbing, bleaching.. it's fascinating!

 Magnolia - on cotton

 She sleeps - on cotton silk

 in the garden 2 - on cotton

 GMC - on cotton

 écume 3 - on cotton

 wiggles - on cotton

 il est beau, le lavabo - on cotton

 'trix 1 - on cotton

 'trix 2 - on cotton

Updates

I am currently working on a collection of smaller batiks in preparation for the next exhibition in August.

I have also decided to blog more periodically.  That hopefully means that in between those periods I shall be working hard in order to have a small 'collection' to present :)

My latest adventure is signing into an online gallery, so a few of my batiks are now for sale online at :
http://www.citizart.com/showroom/shasha.html
(note : the site is in french)

Happy Day!!

early autumn

on cotton-silk
(à x 'écm
______________________

its been an unusually hot spring so far; so I imagine that autumn will come sooner than expected..

'shrooms

on cotton
46 x 45cm

Lil'Art 2011

The local Art Fair - Lil'Art opened yesterday.  40 local artists are presenting their work in the theatre; and another 90 artists and artisans from the nearby towns are showing in the marché.

They installed the Metal structure - spelling LIL'ART in front of the theater where the exhibition is held... unfortunately (in my opinion) the cubes are too small and get a bit lost in the large empty space and the architecture around.  I had initially thought there was going to be a white backdrop, but I was mistaken..