Barrie's own Pauline Bradshaw heads to the Louvre!

When I first moved to Barrie I didn't know a soul.  Wanting to become part of the arts community as quickly as possible, I set out downtown to find a space that would have me immersed in Barrie's culture immediately.  Before any boxes at my house were even unpacked, I had rented myself a studio on Lakeshore Mews.  The space was being used by a local artist Pauline Bradshaw for her practice and teaching, but she was on the move to a building just across from the Maclaren, so my timing was perfect.  My first night renovating the studio space in walked Pauline and her husband Sandy to welcome me to the community.  Their camaraderie warmed my heart and I felt really good about my move to the city.  Since then Pauline has offered me a lot of sound advice, found me a job as the curator of the Mad and Noisy Gallery and has been an excellent sounding board for all that ails me in the art world.  The mental and physical support she has generously offered me over the last several months I am extremely grateful for.  The fact that she has been selected as one of the few artists to be featured in the Louvre is only fitting as not only is she a world class artist, but she has been a world class friend.  Congratulations Pauline, you deserve it. Click on the link to read more about Pauline and her upcoming show.  Ontario artists to be featured at Louvre | Ontario | Travel | Toronto Sun  To see some of her work in person, head to the Mad and Noisy Gallery this weekend to take in  a selection of her works in our current group show Momente.

Social Networking Has its Benefits

Jill Price, Rurbia: Coop, 2011, mixed media on canvas, 4' x 5'

Over the last few weeks I have been introduced to Pinterest and received a brief tutorial on how to increase my followers on Twitter, and wouldn't you know it a NewYork blog called The Wall Breakers took a look at my work and decided to feature me as one of their artists.  People always ask me if all of the social networking I do actually pays off.  I have told them that although it doesn't translate into a lot of direct sales for me, the opportunities and free press I have received over the last year have been amazing.  Here's hoping a New York Blog turns into a New York gallery.  http://www.thewallbreakers.com/index.php/the-gallery/414-jill-price-fabricated-landscapes

All tidied up for Barrie Studio Tour

Jill Price Studios all tidied up for Barrie Spring Art Tour

The Barrie Studio Tour is this weekend so I will be in my studio all weekend just waiting for art lovers to come in and take a look around.  All tidied up, my studio element has been relegated to the back room, where I will need to up my tidying factor if I am ever to remain contained.  If you are planning to come to my studio on Sunday, please note that I will be in a power outage until 11:00 am.  :(  I am giving a little talk tonight at the Creative Space to the other members of the studio tour in which I am going to commend them for their bravery and determination and then end with 5 tips for the weekend.

1. Be prepared to sell and wrap up the most expensive work in your studio.  Have appropriate payment methods, change, and packaging materials on hand.
2. Be mentally prepared to sell nothing as art is an extravagant purchase in today's economic environment.
3. Have something to work on whether it be paper work or an art piece you can step away from so you're not counting the minutes down nor the lack of people walking through your door.  This way you will not feel as though the tour was a waste of your time as you actually got stuff done you had to.
4.  Be sure to have lots of toilet paper on hand as you don't want to be handing guests dinner napkins or a box of tissue through a crack in the door.  Awkward!
5.  Relax, you have done the work you needed to do to get ready for the weekend.  Now sit back and enjoy yourself by getting to really know your visitors.  Build a lasting relationship with them by talking about your work, common interests that inform your work and even asking them about what they do.  You never know what connections and networking my evolve from some good old fashion jovial conversation.

An insane day of driving!

Rurbia: Corral, 2011, mixed media on canvas, 2800.00

Today I spent most of my day on the highway delivering art here, picking up art there, inspecting a mural up north and finally dropping off a painting back in my old stomping grounds of  London, Ontario.  Things could've been tortuous, but it seemed  the weather, traffic and even finding parking right out front all of my stops fell into place.   My most exciting moment today was meeting with Helen, one of the owners of XC Art Gallery on Mount Pleasant Rd.  Today was inspection day as she wanted to check out my work in person.  I was a little intimidated knowing that everyone who works at and owns the gallery has studied art restoration of some kind.  I knew that they would be curious about my techniques and the material soundness of the work. Til today they had only seen my work on line!  Unable to attend the Artist Project this year in person, she perused their website and stumbled across my work.  This is the perfect opportunity to emphasize how important it is to have strong documentation of your work!  Well it turned out she liked my work even better in person so she kept all four pieces that I brought down to show her.  Their charming space was filled with gorgeous work by some artists who I recognized including Sarah Martin and Lorie Skantos.  I look forward to working with this group of individuals as they seem very professional.  On that note, I need to sign off to send them jpegs and my CV before I go to bed.

Conveyed at the Mad and Noisy Gallery one more week.

I'm off to the Mad and Noisy Gallery tomorrow to spend one more wonderful week with the Conveyed show before it comes down for the Momente show scheduled to open on May 5th.   Come on out for a visit and get some shopping done for Mother's Day, Father's Day and anything else you can think of. I may also need to say my farewells to my favourite Rural Transition: Fuel as I received a phone call last week inquiring about it as a gift for someone.  Thank goodness for documentation!