The Flyer Brigade

I've made my living in part by producing flyers, you know, those pesky 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of paper that end up even lying around in gutters. I was hoping I was done doing that, but no, I'm now producing flyers for the Old Colorado City Historical Society, because that's what I can do in return for their helping me with my art show on Friday, Aug. 7, 5-8 p.m. Here's the flyer about it:



Flyers are one of the main ways of advertising for OCCHS. Many of its members also volunteer their time and so these flyers have presumably been going to all the local merchants and to people on the mailing list.
The price on the flyer for my painting says $800, but I'm actually going to sell it for less than that. This is, after all, a sale.
That weekend of Aug. 7 & 8 is a big weekend here, since it's the Sesquicentennial Celebration of Old Colorado City. Here's the flyer:



It's black and white because that way anybody can produce these flyers on their home printers.

I also made another flyer for the other August event for OCCHS, the annual Cemetery Crawl:





The Cemetery Crawl is a lot of fun and is popular. It raises funds for OCCHS, which I'm doing as well. These funds help pay the mortgage and big monthly utility bill for the center, just to start with. And the activities of the history center help attract lots of people to the area. Their operating budget allows them to accomplish a lot in historical documentation and preservation.





The illustration for the Cemetery Crawl is from a photo of Dave Hughes as Anthony Bott. Dave is the Treasurer of OCCHS and he asked me for a caricature of Anthony Bott. This is the best I could come up with.

New Photos of Old Art

I'm getting 12 paintings and drawings ready to sell on Aug. 7, 5-8 p.m. at the Old Colorado City History Center, and it's been keeping me busy every day for the past two weeks. Only the 2 oils have escaped being taken out of their frames. I've taken each picture outdoors on our western patio in the bright southern sun and photographed it with my Minolta DiMage S414. I photoshop each picture in Corel 9, and am currently printing sets of 12 on my Canon Pixma pi4200 photo printer. Most of the new photos I've already posted among the 12 following pictures, but here are the two I finally just got done.
Sacred Heart in the Summer, 77, acrylic 18" x 24" matted



This is a startling improvement over the past photo I've posted (which I've left for comparison's sake in the June 24th post, to my embarrassment).

Sacred Heart in the Winter, 76, acrylic 18" x 24" matted



This is my favorite picture, and although I once sold cards of both of these paintings, I've never had the paintings up for sale before. I guess I just thought I'd keep them on my wall forever.
One big thing I've learned from this blog is how important it is to have good photos to post, especially of art. Now because my printer is so good I'm getting carried away making prints of all 12 pictures, which I'm signing in pencil and putting in clear plastic envelopes which I got from clearenvelopesonline.com. Each print, on 45# Canon matte photo paper, is ready for an 8" x 10" frame.
The thing about printing on a home printer is that the ink is not archival, and no matter how good the paper is the pictures may not seem so sharp after a few years or so. And besides, toner is darned expensive. I just like the control I have, but I'm too cheap to buy a printer that uses better ink.
So I have a question, please:
Should I instead pay to have these painting photos printed for me (from the UPS Store for example), or is home printing ok on a good printer?

My Art Sale

I'm working full speed on my art sale at the Old Colorado City History Center, Fri. Aug. 7, 5-8 p.m.



I've printed a few hundred of these two-page flyer/brochures and with the history center's help I'm getting them distributed.



Please excuse my current lack of frequent posts, I've made myself quite busy with this art sale -- which was one of the objectives that started this blog: "What am I gonna do with all my old art on my walls?" And since I don't have a website I'm directing people to this blog, and am trying to keep the 12 following pictures at the top of the queue.
I've finally got the details about how the show will be set up, with wine and cheese, and a volunteer to run the desk and take credit cards. Judy Ekstrom and daughter Chris Tilson will help. If things aren't too busy they can see some of the other galleries on the Artwalk. There are at least 12 galleries up and down the avenue, and I have to get to them with my brochures.
Figuring out how to display my art has taken awhile, I'm going to use 5 tripods and the large display panels that the history center has. What's kept me the busiest is getting the 12 pictures themselves ready, with clean glass, good mattes and frames; only the two oils are not under glass. And I've been making new photos of them all, for good prints and better display on this blog. I'll have two to show next post, to compare with the old photos.