Breckenridge poster entry

This painting (18x24) was done this summer as my entry into the Bach, Beethoven and Breckenridge poster contest. These poppies are found growing everywhere in Breckenridge in the summertime. Many are in gardens and I suspect others are escapees that naturalized. I did not win this year (I did have a painting selected a couple of years ago) but it was fun doing it and I enjoyed hearing the comments about it. Most people seemed to like it. The one that was selected was also flowers, but it was columbine in front of aspen tree trunks, and was a great painting. I actually voted for it myself :)

I don't have this piece in a gallery yet, but am waiting for summer to come back so that people will see it while the flowers are blooming. We have a long wait yet as winter has not yet really taken hold here in the mountains of Colorado.

Sold! (maybe)

It is amazing what the publicity for the Bach Beethoven and Breckenridge poster has done for my business this month. The poster was printed about a month ago, and we had a poster signing and reception July 10th at the gallery that carries it. Suddenly, people think of me as a real artist rather than a wannabe artist. I like that! It is just a local poster and nothing like getting into a national magazine or winning a contest, but I see a lot of them on walls in people's homes and offices. This is the 24th year for the poster and it is a long time tradition, almost always using a local artist.

The painting above was not the one used for the poster, but another I had submitted for it. It is 18x24, and a client who purchased a little 8x10 piece of fall aspens saw it on my website and wants to buy it. I will deliver it for her approval when I go to Denver on Friday for another appointment. The gallery where I did the poster signing has sold a couple of originals and another couple sold through other outlets. It has been a good month. It will help me buy my new car this fall! If they made Subarus the color of aspens in the fall, I might buy one that color, but they don't :(

Good news!

Last November I entered two paintings into a competition for poster for the Breckenridge Music Festival. It is called "Bach Beethoven and Breckenridge" and even though it has a music theme, landscape paintings have often been used on the poster. I found out about it two weeks before the deadline and quickly got a couple of 18x24 landscapes painted and entered them both. One was selected as a finalist and I was thrilled!

Rather than the Music Festival doing the poster, it was produced by a person who had the contract to make the selection and pay to print the poster. He would pay the artist for the work and get all rights to the image. After donating a certain number of prints to the music festival (along with the original painting) he would then wholesale the posters to other print stores and galleries in the area. They have always been good sellers, and you often see them on the walls of local homes and businesses.

This year, that guy went out of business. He closed his store and is moving away. I thought that the poster project was dead and that even though I came close to winning, it would never happen. Yesterday I got a phone call that the Buffalo Mountain Gallery has bought the program and will be printing the poster using my image! It was a lovely surprise and I am excited that it is finally going to happen.

As you have seen from the work I post on this blog, I like color and I like to paint Colorado aspens in the fall. That is what this work also is, and it has the really original name of "Colorado Color." It probably could have used a better name, but sometimes I just run out of ideas. Hopefully it will reproduce well as a poster. Luckily they are not relying on my photo of it for the poster, but will have it professionally photographed.

Entering a poster competition

About three weeks ago I found out that the 24th annual Bach Beethoven and Breckenridge poster competition had a deadline of November 15th. I had never really considered entering the contest as I have always painted fairly small. For me, 16x20 was big, and I knew the Breckenridge Music Festival liked a larger image.

I took a class through the local junior college in September and October and one of our assignments was to paint a large painting. I did a 24x30 landscape and found that I really like painting larger! I liked the way my painting turned out and it started me thinking about trying for this poster. What you see here is one of two paintings I entered. I know that as of Friday there were seven other entries, at least two of which are by a past winner, and there will probably be more before tomorrow's deadline.

Tuesday the 17th there is an event at Ski Hill framing where I think all the entries will be on display, and I don't know when the winner will be announced. As new an artist as I am, I doubt I have much of a chance, but you never know! You will certainly hear about it if one of my paintings is chosen!