Our startling adventure when we delivered my paintings to the art show.

It’s important for the reader to know that artists are very attached to and sentimental about their work.  Just to say we are careful with our paintings would be an understatement.

The evening before the art show I reverently wrapped my eight paintings and packed them into carrying cases in preparation for the two mile drive to the Art Show the next day.  Well, Saturday morning as we unwrapped the first painting at the venue ……it fell out of the frame; all the way to the floor. Dropping a painting to the floor is startling and nerve-wracking and just plain awful.

(I’m so glad I did this portrait of myself. I use it a lot!)

After recovering somewhat, we unwrapped another one and that painting also fell out of its frame. Why did that happen and at such a time? Here was clearly one reason I always get a headache when a glue-gun is mentioned! Thinking I MIGHT need it, I had brought some serious glue with me and we hastily began to do the repair. Meanwhile a volunteer stood waiting to hang them on the exhibit panels. She had a lot of work to do, which did not include standing around waiting for glue to dry.

David had to first scrape the old glue-gun residue off the back of the paintings before we could apply the new glue. As soon as I had completed the gluing and placed it back in the frame I wanted to press it down firmly for a few minutes. Instead, the volunteer took it and hung it on a panel…..vertically, of course. I had visions of arriving at the opening of the show and finding at least two of my paintings lying on the floor, glued to the carpet. The judge would probably not take the trouble to critique anything on the floor….specially if she couldn’t get it unstuck from the carpet. The glue would probably work perfectly then, of course, stuck to the carpet!

 We repaired the second painting and did a quick, nervous check of the other 6 paintings I had entered. All seemed tight enough. Fingers crossed here! We went back home to wait until the show opened at noon.

When we arrived  I was so relieved to find them all hanging with the paintings still in their frames, AND one was sporting a “Second Place” (Professional Category) award ribbon, titled “At Tharri Monastery-Rhodes”. Yay! All was well and lots of fun after all. Plus, one of the first paintings to come unglued that morning won the “Peoples Choice” Award later on that afternoon, coincidentally titled, “Congratulations”.

The glue episode made a good story to share with all my friends who came to the show…and to you, my blog-following friends!

You are probably wondering how in the world a painting can fall out of a frame and be glued back in. I used floater frames on five of the paintings.They are very good looking and well made.

 I order my frames from King of Frames in Costa Mesa, California,  http://www.kingofframe.com/Floater-Frames_c_19.html.  The frames arrive completely finished in the back. All that is needed is to glue your painting on its back and place it into the frame on front, of course. I first used the glue-gun because I thought I could pop the painting out in case it did not sell at the show and use the frame a second time for a different painting in the future. That’s not going to happen now, since I used the world’s best glue for repair. Those two paintings are forever together with their frame. I may rethink my frame choices in the future. NO glue-gun and NO glue!

None of the above has discouraged me from continuing to paint  in my little workroom/studio, creating yet another series of paintings for the next show. I’m just a wiser framer.  My plan is to begin a series of paintings of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A good idea.

“I want to meet a guy named Art. I’d take him to a museum,hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave.”― Jarod Kintz,