Tag Archives: Danbury

FAIR DANBURY FAIR

June 15, 2021 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

One of the more fond memories of Danbury, is the state fair that came around every fall. That is, until 1981. Now the fairgrounds is a shopping mall. Still, there is still, a lot of good subject matter here.

Why this fuss about Danbury?

I’m part of a pop-up that just popped up on Friday nights in downtown Danbury. My first night was very slow, knowledge of the event wasn’t widespread.

Obviously, I need to work a bit more on the presentation.

HOWEVER………

It’s exposure.

I’m taking the advice of someone I’ve mentioned before. More or less, is that if you want to make a splash at a show, you should have one big statement piece, and the rest small accent pieces. I have the accent pieces…..but the statement?

I thought of it many times. I think what is best is to do an enlarged version of one of my more successful works.

My first thought was Floral Overload…

But I’ll be damned if I do all that work again. I was about rip the hair from my scalp, by the end of doing this.

So, I kept considering pieces, and considering pieces until I became utterly confused.

I called on a couple of a couple of friends. I’d like to say we had a viewing of my work with cocktails and hors d’oevres. Alas, I thought of that too late. It’s a nice thought, though.

All of us decided views of Danbury would be more inviting to come into the Pop-Up and Party Space. So, we considered a few.

My only request was no cats. I didn’t think it would be as interesting to people. Naturally, when you eliminate cats, that disqualifies about three quarters of my portfolio.

Oh yes, and no N:YC pictures.

We settled on this:

So, those of you in Connecticut and nearby New York State, the show is Danbury, on Main Street in an empty storefront, I think it’s spelled Mereiki. It’s on Friday evenings, going through August.

Oh, yes, ……the featured image of my last post was so big that it was impossible to see. So, shrunk down to size:

Definitely a New York City picture.

Well, It !!!WAS!!! SUnny earlier

June 2, 2021 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

Right now, this is the view from my living room window.

As the title says “It WAS Sunny Earlier.

And earlier, I decided to do a drawing of a rhododendron. No, not precisely.

I signed up to do a pop-up show in downtown Danbury, and doing a mad dash to make as many notecards for it as possible. So, doodled out a notecard.

Then I had flash of an idea…well, more of an end of a slide show of my old work. Reminiscent of the work I was doing back in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Such as this…..

So, this is how it came out…….

Doing it was fun! Doing a lot of these little drawings for notecards is fun!

But as I look outside, I can see it’s beginning to rain. It’s supposed to rain through Friday. There may not be a pop-up. Oh, well, what the hell.

But back on the subject of rhododendrons:

Damn, there are a lot of rhododendrons in this condo complex.

Not complaining. Just sayin’.

Here,and there

September 24, 2020 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

I’m really enjoying doing these little drawings. For now, at least. Less in the way of time, expense and aggravation. Did I mention aggravation? Yes,I guess I did.

What keeps going around in my mind..

Are any of these worthy of the time and effort of large versions?

So far, I am going to keep going and stash these away as an animal saves food for the winter.

Yes,winter is coming! Will the dull colors it always does. This time, im prepared!

But let’s make the most of fall,while we can.

Come Bobbing Along, Already!

January 28, 2020 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

I have a friend who visits from Thailand every couple of years. He’ll be here in March, and I was starting to make plans……………and he said, “Well that’s two months away”. I really thought it was right around the corner. Thanks for nothing, James!

As I said last post, I was going to work on a spring picture, and that’s it, in the featured picture. Or at least the preliminary sketch of it. I may work on a large one, but I may change my mind about that.

There’s an old, dated, sexist saying “It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind”. Alright, sexist though it is, I’ll take it.

This was my old logo, Embracing My Inner Cat.

This is my current logo, Connecticut Fantasy.

But I’m thinking of changing back.

So, it turns out I have been accepted into the art show I applied for. You remember, I was going over the no’s and the maybe’s. So, on to the yes ones. You may see that I’ve changed my mind about some of the no’s.

Of course, I may add a few small ones to it. I’ll have to see the space, I will go after the meeting on February 20…or 21st, depending on the weather.

So, I’ve been changing my mind a lot lately, and will continue to do so…………

Nothing’s off the table!

Making Peace with Winter

November 8, 2019 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

Hello folks! I’ve mentioned before about my seasonal depression, and guess what! It’s nearly winter again. I did a series of drawings one year, making peace with each month.

For instance, this was “Making Peace with November”.

And this was “Making Peace with December”

I believe this one was “Making Peace with January”, but as I look back on my artwork, well, it sometimes is a puzzle to me, what I made when and in what context:

I also see I have a picture entitled “January 3rd”……

I think I intended it to be another year’s sequel to January 2,

These drawings did work (or maybe it was the Prozac) and I was able to see happiness and beauty in winter. Or I should say, most of winter.

What still gets to me are the grey dismal days, of dark skies and dirty slush. A couple of years ago, I tried to make peace with the grey gloom, and came up with this;

People in Danbury like this, because it’s a well known statue, here. But to me, however, it still looks like a depressingly dull winter day.

But, I still have hope….that I will find some kind of beauty in the winter days. I have an idea, we shall see if it works out. After all, some winter days are dramatic, and gorgeous.

There’s No Business, like well you know…

June 5, 2019 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

Last Saturday was the Danbury Street Fair! In which I participated in as an artist. I was able to do this on the cheap, without investing hundreds of dollars on equipment. I was breathlessly waiting to take the tent from its case. I only paid $65 and a trip to Queens, NY, so there would not have been a big monetary loss if it was unusable. But then, I’d be without a tent. Low and behold, we set it up and it stood as high and as proudly as the American flag on July 4.

I would have had better display racks if I could, but money was certainly an object.

As for sales, I only sold three small drawings (one of which was to my sister in law).

It always surprises me what people decide to buy. A young woman, a cat lover, bought two drawings

And a small version of this one. I did put out this large, full-sized picture, which got a lot of attention. Cat pictures were the order of the day, including my brother’s cat.

Lots of lookers though. I’ve done enough of this kind of show not to expect to get rich off the sales. The main thing was to get my art in front of the public, and have fun. Yes, some people go on cruises, I do art shows.

It would have been a lot more fun if I hadn’t been fighting the flu with a fever. That’s another story.

So, now making plans for the next one. It will probably be in the fall, getting close to the holidays. With better racks. I’ll keep you posted.

Bricks

October 10, 2018 roxannebaldwin 2 Comments

A little background info….

I’ve been away for a while, in case you haven’t noticed. I needed some time to reflect, think about where I’ve been, where I’m going and most importantly, where I am.

And it all comes down to bricks…well, sort of.

When I first really got going working in colored pencil, I lived in Greenwich, CT. Somehow, and for what reason I can’t figure out, I became drawn to drawing (Ha) buildings with bricks. I sweated tears over each individual rectangle, making sure it was perfect.

Then I landed quite happily but totally unexpectedly in Manhattan. Again, loads and loads of bricks to be drawn! I still was sweating over each and every single detail.

So, then due to circumstances which are beyond explaining. I landed in Queens, a little community called Sunnyside. And much to my delight, I found bricks! By now, I was taking those little rectangles in stride.

Then after 20 years of ups and downs and all arounds in NYC, I ended up back in Connecticut in a small city called Danbury. It’s as a large of a city as I want to deal with for a while.

And whaddya think I found there? My first picture there, bricks.

And bricks and cats.

After this much needed break, guess what I start with?

And a familiar door. Yes, I know it’s October, I started this pic in May.

A Good Time Was Had By All….

May 21, 2017 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

Thought I’d give you some updates and some pictures from the opening of my show. The turnout was small, but I’ve come to expect that. It was a beautiful spring day, with a of other event going on, so I’m happy with support I did get. Plus the show will be up about three more weeks.

So, first picture by my friend, and helper to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, Cathy.

One of the things that Cathy helped with, was setting up the refreshments. We had quite a spread. It also helped with traffic. Some library goers, took the food, but felt obligated to at least look at my show.

Nearly had one sale, but my work was the wrong color for the area of the viewer’s home. I don’t really expect much in the way of sales from local shows, getting my name out is the motive. Sometimes, in the future, people who have seen the show contact me for commissions.

So, it turned out well..

I should mention, the show is a part of the Accessible Arts Program, by the Artisans’ Alliance of Northwest Connecticut.

Speaking of Bob Ross…

January 30, 2017 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

As I was working on “Sunday’s Stream of Consciousness”, Dearly Beloved looked at it, and said “You’re no Bob Ross”. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, good or bad. Turns out he meant my trees are not happy, although they do have friends….

So, here it is, a drawing done nearly spontaneously with not a lot of prior planning. A stream of creatively, maybe, not consciousness, but a stream none the less.

So, now I’ve used my more precious than gold paper. Until I have money to restock it, I’ll be doing some note cards. See you soon!

Roxanne Baldwin's Artsy Blog