A Day at the Art Expo

Attended the Art Expo in Lisle, Illinois yesterday with two wonderful artist buddies. It was a beautiful day and a lovely drive to the Hickory Ridge Marriott. Check-in was a breeze (with pre-registration) and we were given an extra-large "green" goodie Blick bag for all the purchases and freebies we amassed during the day.

The first room we drifted into was the Candy Store, and by that I mean the vendor room where all the art supply vendors were selling their wares at discounted prices. As we three all use different medium, we drifted apart as different "candy" caught our eye. Many booths really dazzled including a new pastel product I hadn't seen before. Instead of the usual pastel sticks, these pastels come in little round pans. The colors just blew me away. They looked like little pots of gorgeous make-up and I wanted to play. The tools to paint with them equally look like cosmetic applicants and were wonderful to work with. In an outdoor tent they had a "play" area where I could test them out and really had a great time. The gals had to drag me away! A girl could get seriously hooked on these and they are pretty affordable and last a long time. The nice thing about the sponge-tips tools is they save the skin on your fingers when blending. To check them out, visit PanPastel.com. They are available at Dick Blick and run about $4 per pot and are long lasting with minimal dust factor.

All art books were on sale half price, and always being a sucker for books, I bought two - Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color by Kevin MacPherson and The Painterly Approach by Bob Rohm. Read the first one last night, (well, flipped through it mostly) and really enjoyed it - lots of good tips and color ideas. Particularly liked the "mixing sensitive Grays" section - doesn't that sound marvelous?! Also took advantage of the low prices to try a linen canvas for the first time and splurged on some attractively priced boar bristle brushes hoping the hair won't be falling out of the shank anytime soon (because the prices seemed too good to be true (did I say that out loud?). The man who sold them to me said if they did, just to bring them back next year and he would replace them for free - guarenteed! We'll see. Also bought (partly because it has high cuteness factor) the Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box with 24 colors and water brush. So handy for travel.

Having skipped breakfast, we went in search of a cheap option for lunch and found one in a hotdog/hamburger stand inside the outdoor vendor tent. After grabbing food, we joined a nice gentleman at a table (due to a seating shortage) and he turned out to be the nicest guy who is a watercolor artist/cartoonist from Michigan City, Indiana. He creates gamers comic books including "Knights of the Dinner Table"! Always join a half full table because you are bound to meet interesting people.

Prying ourselves away from the vendor booths, we rushed to our one workshop we had signed up for ~ "Creating Portraits" with Len Gason. Turns out Len was a no-nonsense guy (oh dear) who "hushed" us repeatedly - which frankly was a bit of a turn-off - aren't we there to learn and have fun? His handouts were a bit lame, but he did give some useful tips on composition and values. A bit of an absent-minded, disorganized professor, as he continually had to hunt for items when trying to make his point ("Where did I put that darn Mona Lisa?!!!?"). Using Gouche (my first time) we did a color value study of John Sargent's (as he called him ~ I personally always include the Singer) James Joyce portrait. To varying degrees our portraits turned out looking like anything from Dr. Phil, to Uncle Ben (he of the rice box) to The Mummy. Still it contained some valuable lessons, though I am not sure the workshop was worth the $75 pricetag.

To end our day, we headed back to the vendor tents (like moths to the flame) to collect our purchases and play a little more with the materials. I also watch (a nerve-wrecking) 5 minute portrait contest between 3 artists on stage with a model, working with just three stick pastels in the most hidious neon colors. First prize was a $50 gift certificate to Dick Blick and the winner, while sparse in detail versus the other two contestants, definately best captured the subject. She also had some pretty rowdy friends in the audience cheering her on.

At the end of the day, we collapsed in a heap in the cushy lobby to compare our loot. I was a little green-eyed over a landscape sketchbook that was beautifully proportioned for panaramic scenes. We all concurred it was a good day and we were ready for a McDonald's drive-thru for some much needed caffine for the drive home.

The expo was lots of fun and the lessons learned for next year are these; 1) save your money for the trip, 2) get more info about a class and instructor before you register and 3) don't buy art supplies for months leading up to the show and make a laundry list of what paint colors you need refills on- because you are not going to remember once at the show! Overall ~ worth the trip!