The last few tomatoes plucked green from our Indiana garden are slowly ripening on the kitchen counter back here in Maryland now. Our time in Indiana was brief but busy, spent with family and working on the perpetual project that is a one hundred-year-old house. I was glad that my visit coincided with the Solarbron show and that I was able to go to the opening.
The Solarbron Invitational Juried Art Show, always a good one, was really wonderful this year. It is exciting to see such depth of quality in a local show. And the Solarbron art collection is huge and just exceptional. I love to look at it when I am there. It is fun to see pieces from my college professors and artist friends included, and I am happy that one of my own pastels was judged worthy to hang beside them.
But my favorite part of this or any art show is talking to the other artists. I always gain some new insight that inspires. At this show I learned, for example, that an abstract artist I admire carefully plans, struggles over and reworks her paintings as much as any realist painter might. Her paintings are beautifully composed, but yet look so fresh and spontaneous, I was sure she just whipped them off in a flash. I admit it, I have been jealous of her for years. I wondered how she did it. I am glad to know now that she is just as human as the rest of us, and if anything, I admire her even more.
I also love to finally see a painting that I have been hearing about, as a friend who has been trying a new approach or method finally feels good enough about the result to bring it out of the studio. It encourages me to broaden my own artistic horizons, too. Sometimes just a few minutes conversation can provide hours of motivation!
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