Busy Art Weekend

Open studios wasn't the only art event I attended this past weekend, though it was the only one at which I bought something. I have been madly in love with the work of Anne Sargent Walker for years and have wanted to buy one of her pieces for just as long and this time I finally did. It's a painting from 2003 and the only one left that hadn't sold from a very bold series. It's called Two Crows and a Man and I simply love it. I had thought I was going to hang it in the dining room to share it with the world (or at the very least, the small part of the world that visits my home) but instead I switched it with a piece that has hung over my night table for some years. Now it's right next to me in the place I love best: bed. I get a secret thrill every time I walk into my bedroom.

On Sunday, David and I attended the 2010 Art and Design Fair where I fell head over heels in love with a small, original Maxfield Parrish watercolor study. It was hands-down the most exquisite thing in the entire show. It came without a price tag, which everyone knows means "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" and so I didn't ask as I knew it would only make me sad. If I had that kind of money yesterday afternoon, this tiny painting would have been the one and only thing I'd have spent it on.

And late yesterday afternoon we also did a very quick run through the last half hour of a high end craft show where I saw some lovely things: quirky mixed media hanging dolls, whimsical pottery (I'll be paying a visit to one potter's studio next month as her work was wonderful) and the work of some very compelling textile artisans as well.

The weekend had me thinking, thinking, thinking. Being in the midst of so much amazing art is incredibly stimulating and sometimes even crosses over the line to being a bit overstimulating: by the end of a day like yesterday I find my brain is cranking away at hyperspeed and feels like it's going to pop. But this always means that the day after is guaranteed to be a wildly productive day, and today was just that. The perfect, perfect day.

Maxfield Parrish, Study for Twilight, watercolor on paper, 1935