1/3/09
Beinvenue 2009
Dear Friends and Family, and All who are Interested:
We Wish you a Beautiful New Year!
You can stop here, or continue to part two:
This is a short letter to summarize our gallery's joys and sorrows and fill you all in our our plans for the new year. For the past year and a half, Blue Fig Art has been growing and taking its first steps. So far things are going pretty well, I mean we are right in line as a new business - it's a complete economic failure. We sold only one painting last year, and that was in Summer (the only time Porto Heli is busy). The shop didn't even officially open until mid-June so the best selling period came and went without taking much advantage of it. On the other side, a lot of learning has been taking place. The first project was to get the empty box with windows to look like a nice full box with windows. We made it pretty much from scratch with a little help from IKEA and Praktiker; and of course, the artists and their paintings slowly made the gallery come to life.
At the end of Summer, we had our Big Opening Night. My mom and I had a big joint party for her new spa too it went really well! I met a lot of artists and potential clients, and it was the night my painting got sold too. I'm finding that one of the best ways to get artists to come to you is by having a Vernissage (gallery lingo for Opening). This year we have a few in the making, one in February, one in April, and one in August.
February's show is all about celebrating the Human Form and I have a couple good artists so far I need just a few more to get the complete picture (haha). One of my artists is Ibrahim BinOmar, who is Saudi. He draws his inspiration from African styles, which is far from the Islamic cultural norm. We met through Sameera Ibrahim, another great person who has been helping either by giving business wisdom, or introducing me to the Arabian art world through her art center. Right now we're working on getting about 9 Saudi artists to Blue Fig Art this summer ( I'm keeping my fingers crossed ) !
Also, this year we will be making improvements to the box. We're going to hopefully get better lighting and internet. We also want to make better ads for the shop and the artists, for instance right now I'm working on postcards with paintings from some of our artists - so look out for one soon!
We wish everyone the warmest holiday season, and I hope that your New Year is filled with miracles and rewarding days!!
Lots of Love,
Blue Fig Art:
Christine Smith and Co.
We Wish you a Beautiful New Year!
You can stop here, or continue to part two:
This is a short letter to summarize our gallery's joys and sorrows and fill you all in our our plans for the new year. For the past year and a half, Blue Fig Art has been growing and taking its first steps. So far things are going pretty well, I mean we are right in line as a new business - it's a complete economic failure. We sold only one painting last year, and that was in Summer (the only time Porto Heli is busy). The shop didn't even officially open until mid-June so the best selling period came and went without taking much advantage of it. On the other side, a lot of learning has been taking place. The first project was to get the empty box with windows to look like a nice full box with windows. We made it pretty much from scratch with a little help from IKEA and Praktiker; and of course, the artists and their paintings slowly made the gallery come to life.
At the end of Summer, we had our Big Opening Night. My mom and I had a big joint party for her new spa too it went really well! I met a lot of artists and potential clients, and it was the night my painting got sold too. I'm finding that one of the best ways to get artists to come to you is by having a Vernissage (gallery lingo for Opening). This year we have a few in the making, one in February, one in April, and one in August.
February's show is all about celebrating the Human Form and I have a couple good artists so far I need just a few more to get the complete picture (haha). One of my artists is Ibrahim BinOmar, who is Saudi. He draws his inspiration from African styles, which is far from the Islamic cultural norm. We met through Sameera Ibrahim, another great person who has been helping either by giving business wisdom, or introducing me to the Arabian art world through her art center. Right now we're working on getting about 9 Saudi artists to Blue Fig Art this summer ( I'm keeping my fingers crossed ) !
Also, this year we will be making improvements to the box. We're going to hopefully get better lighting and internet. We also want to make better ads for the shop and the artists, for instance right now I'm working on postcards with paintings from some of our artists - so look out for one soon!
We wish everyone the warmest holiday season, and I hope that your New Year is filled with miracles and rewarding days!!
Lots of Love,
Blue Fig Art:
Christine Smith and Co.
12/23/08
The Beermans
The Beerman Gallery in Kranidi, Argolidos, was established by Marita and Erwin Beerman more than two decades ago. They use their space for working and showing their paintings that are mostly inspired by the small town, their surroundings and the people of Southern Greece. The Beermans use bright pastels and watercolors, and compose playful simple structures and shapes.
Other than sharing a love of art, we are also all foreigners in the area! Their help has been invaluable to me as they have much knoweledge of the area and people, as well as a lot of practical advice in running a gallery. We have also all spent former years living in Saudi Arabia! They spent twelve years in the western part of Saudi and I spent my childhood in eastern side. Our common interests, and their warm-heartedness have made me feel a little bit more at home...Right now they are in Dubai organizing an exhibit.
Check out their site http://gallery-beermann.4ugo.de/
12/12/08
Vernissage in 2009
Blue Fig Art is getting ready for a new show in February. The concept is about people....
It was very interesting to find out about cheap art here in Greece. Cheap art is a group of people who sell very small works of art for very small prices...something that I think is in my interest, as well as anyone else that is on tight on money; it's nice to find that not every work of art has to be expensive! www.cheapart.gr
11/17/08
still life
Clairie Demiri is an artist with a sensitive eye and sophisticated hand. Her painting with the wine glass and olives has both a universal familiarity, but is also unmistakabley Greek.
11/16/08
Learning is Fun!
Mu-Project is a group of web designers from France who created an interactive learning tool for small children. The concept is based around animated storytelling where the child can go to different parts of a fairytale by pressing on a big interactive table-top...but there is much more to do too! Mu-Project are nominated to be in the Europrix Multimedia Festival 08 in Graz, Austria (Nov. 27 - 29) for their entertaining and meaningful work. You can see their fun invention on the Objectgraphik site which we are linked to, or directly at http://www.mu-project.com/index.php
11/6/08
Pikralida
Paulina Zioga is a young artist from Athens. She got her degree in nursing and graduated from the Athens School of Fine Art as magnum cum laude. Her art is inspired by her medical studies and she uses new media such as photography and digital design to execute her ideas. Paulina has had her work bought by the Greek Embassy in the Hague as well as by private collectors. She is participating in Platforma Video '08 International Film Festival this weekend with her video entitled I Dreamt I Was a Butterfly. You can check out her work at http://www.polina-zioga.com
9/26/08
Sculptural Forms
Filippou has been painting for the past 15 years. She has participated in numerous workshops and courses offered in her home in Aniksi, a northern suburb of Athens, as well as various group exhibitions. She will be having her first solo exhibit in the last week of November. Her work is enjoyable to the viewer because it is both sculptural and playful.
9/19/08
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)