3-8-10 Patty is painting one of our local Tennessee pictures. This piece is from Burgess Falls State Park, off Hwy 111 in Central Tenn. The piece is 15 inches wide and 19 inches high and will also be available in different sizes.
We leave Wednesday to drive back to Florida and our last Florida art show for the year. It's in Vero Beach and one of our favorite shows to participate in. It's in a beautiful park setting, Riverside Park. We'll be in Booth # 3.
We were in Florida last month for three shows, gone for almost a month, back home for just over two weeks and will be back on the road again. After that we go to Houston for a show the last weekend in March then Atlanta for a show in April. We're still hoping the price of gas comes down more real soon!
Spring is starting to come to Tennessee! This my first winter up north in 28 years and Patty has never spent a winter this far north. We were definitely spoiled living all these years in South Florida. We're looking forward to summers here, the last few were just brutal in Fla.! I thought I was going to bake, it's always so HOT and HUMID!
I'm not sure if you have noticed our price changes, because our overhead is much lower in Tennessee, we've reduced our prices 20-30%. If you have been wanting one of our pieces or to add to your collection of our pieces, now is a GREAT time. Call us at 931-287-0251 and let know which piece you want and what size you want it in. If it's not in stock, we'll make it for you!
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  Still needs more work, this is about half way done.
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2-2-10 Wow, how time flies! The holidays have come and gone and I didn't get one entry in the blog the whole time. We had company at the new house in Tennessee and all had a good time.
Patty and I are on the road again for the first time since moving. We are back in Florida for 3 shows on back to back to back weekends. Naples, Fort Myers and Coconut Grove. We just finished the Naples Invitational Art fest this past weekend where we won an award and had an ok show. We still have 2 shows to go and hope to do better the next two weekends.
We're hanging out with friends in Naples this week then going on to Fort Myers for the weekend. I'm hoping to get the beach at least one day this week, I miss going to beach now that we are living in Tenn. Our neighbors emailed us this past weekend and they got 6 inches of snow while we were gone, timing is everything! It feels good to be wearing short pants again, I think it's been about two months of freezing and wearing long pants.
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11-29-09 We finally have the house painted, boxes unpacked and almost everything in it's place. We have a few more things to do but as usual with remodeling, we've run out of funds! Patty is in her new studio painting orders that we have taken at the last few shows. I have a new workshop, converted part of the garage and built the first few frames this weekend.
We 've made it into a few good shows for the first part of next year! We'll be returning to the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami in Feb and we made it back into the Atlanta Dogwood Festival in April. You can see our full schedule for the first of the year, click here.
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 Patty's new studio
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11-3-09 Patty and I are working every day at painting, unpacking boxes, doing little repairs around the house to fix up our new home. It's been just over two weeks and we are still unpacking boxes. Most are gone already but we still have a few left and, of course, there are still a few things we cannot find, lost in the move somewhere.
I'm trying my best to start making Patty's new studio work table this week. She custom designed it to fit in her studio and be functional to meet all of her needs. It's now up to me to build it!
We got our acceptance into the Coconut Grove Art Festival today, it's President's day weekend in Miami. It's been a good show for us in the past and we figure we'll be ready for a little South Florida weather in late January and February.
We love our new home in Tennessee, we both feel VERY lucky to have sold our home in Fla, in this market, and move. We love our neighborhood and our neighbors, the town, everything about this move has been positive. Thanks to all of you that have purchased artwork from us, it's your purchases that have made this entire move possible and for that we are truly thankful. Thank you!
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 Mike's new workshop.
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10-20-09 We packed everything we own into the back of a 26 foot Uhaul truck and moved to Tennessee. We had to leave a bunch of stuff behind and gave away a lot of of things that just wouldn't fit. The truck was packed so tight that one of the guys helping us unload said, "you must have been a Jinga champion."
I have never been so tired as I was the day we loaded the truck and I had 3 guys helping me. We had also had 3 guys helping us unload, that wasn't nearly as bad. They were young guys and I let them do a lot of the work.
Patty and I are now painting, stripping wall paper, changing light fixtures and learning our way around town. We love our new home and new town. Our neighbors have been great, one of them brought us one of the best pumpkin pies we have ever eaten!
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 102 Shelley Lane,
Fairfield Glade, Tn. 38558
931-287-0251
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9-4-09 We only have a few days left before heading out to Atlanta and the Yellow Daisy Festival. Patty is working hard to get a more frames painted before we leave. The piece on the right here is one of our newest pictures from our California trip this summer. It's from Lake Tahoe. Patty always does such a great job painting rocks and she really shows off her talent on this frame!
Our big news this week is we finally sold our house! It only took 15 months! We have a signed contract and we are scheduled to close next month. We've been searching on line for a house in Tennessee. The good news here is, we've got thousands to choose from and finally we're going to be on the advantage side, being a buyer and we should be able to get a good deal on our next home.
We'll be moving across the country and would like to lighten our load a bit, so if you have been wanting one of our pictures, let us know, we'd rather ship it to you than haul it across the country. 954-731-7731
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8-26-09 We're normally gone this time of year, working outside in the garage in this heat is really draining! I'm not sure if it's actually getting hotter or as I get older, I become less tolerant to it. I've been making a few frames for Patty to paint and making up a batch of our reproductions. I work for a few hours, come in drained and just collapse on the couch.
Patty just finished painting a really beautiful piece called Canopus Lake in the 31x41. It's not put together yet, when it is, I'll take a picture of it and post it here.
Today she's starting one of our pictures from Lake Tahoe in the 18x21 size. To see the photo, click on the Lake Tahoe link, it's the 6th photo down, CA 21-2-5. The one with all the rocks at the bottom. This is the second photo we've done from our California trip earlier this year.
We've got just under two weeks left before leave for our Yellow Daisy Festival trip in Stone Mountain, Ga. This is usually a good show for us and one of our favorites to do. We usually get the same booth space, we know all of the artists around us and it's like getting together for our yearly visit with each other.
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8-15-09 It's our third week at home and Patty is starting to finish off some of our new pictures. The piece on the right is called Pacific Coast and was taken at Pfeiffer Beach State Park in Big Sur, Ca. We made this one in the 18x21 size and other sizes are available.
This week we received notification that we're accepted into a show in Winter Springs, Fl, Oct 24-25. Last year was the first year for the show and we heard good reports about it and this year, we'll be there. If you live near Orlando, come see us in Oct in Wnter Springs.
We're also participating in a show in Fort Myers, Nov. 20-22. This is our first time in this show also.
This week we also added a little something special to our home page, little cyber Mike. I received an email about doing a free trail and thought I would try it out. Let us know what you think, email us at albinarts@gmail.com and tell us your opinion. Our goal is make coming to our website fun and interesting, we're hoping this helps.
If you have been wanting one of our original colaborations of painting and photography but holding off for now. Please let us know what your concerns are and let's see if we can work out a plan for you to get the artwork you want today! Call us 954-731-7731. I promise, you're going to be really glad you called. :)
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8-7-09 We've been home now for two weeks and finally starting to get caught up. It's amazing how much piles up while we are away! We've been applying for shows in November, January and February. Trying to figure out which shows to do and which shows not to do. There's never any guarantees when we show up for a show. Shows that have been good in the past but in the last few years have been way down, how long do we keep going back when sales have not been good? A crystal ball should would come in handy!!!
SOMEONE JUST TOLD US A GREAT STORY!
Mary in Louisville has one of our Morning Trail pieces hanging in her bathroom. She had a fire in her home and the firemen actually rescued the Morning Trail picture because they said it looked liked something special that she wouldn't want destroyed. It was the only piece of artwork they rescued from her house fire! Patty and I have been to her home and she has many pieces of art. Pretty hard to imagine guys in house battling a fire and seeing a piece of art hanging on the wall, stopping what they are doing to save a piece of our artwork. Thank you to Louisville fire department for saving our artwork!
Stories like this really make our day and make Patty and I feel like this is our true calling!
Thank you Mary for the story!
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We're going to be in Louisville in October. I will get a picture of Mary with her Morning Trail picture and put it here!
Patty painted this Hiker's Dream in the 31x41 size this week.
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7-24-09 We just got back from another art show trip. Two more shows that we've done for the first time. The first show was on the campus of Penn State University, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of Art. We sold 7 pieces total, met some really wonderful people and ate some terrific food. There are some really great restaurants in State College!
Our second show was in Westport, Connecticut. A neat little show in a quaint New England town. We sold 3 pieces total and all in all, had a successful trip!
Patty and I stopped in Philadelphia in between shows and saw some of this country's historical landmarks including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and of course had a cheese steak sandwich at Jim's on South Street!
We are home for 6 weeks now so I'll do a better job with updating the blog!
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 David and Marla's 45x55
October Stream.
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6-29-09 Patty and I are home from our California trip! We have some AWESOME new photos of Big Sur and Lake Tahoe. You can see them here: CLICK HERE We'rer only home for 8 days then we leave again for our next show trip to Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
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6-12-09 We just got home from another 3 week trip on the road. We're home for all of 7 days and we leave again for 10 days in California. The California trip is more for getting away and relaxing. No art shows. My nephew is having his Bar Mitzvah, we're going out for that and a little picture taking on the side. We plan on going to Big Sur and Lake Tahoe while we are there.
Patty is painting this week, one of our more popular pieces, Antelope Canyon Blues in the 15x17 size. We're putting it on ebay to try and raise some funds for our California trip.
We won a Jurors Choice award at the Columbus Arts Festival!!! Jurors Choice is their name for a first place award, we were just under Best in Show.
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 Patty and I at Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park in California.
Photo by Dr. Kathy Ligon.
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5-14-09 We've been home for about a week now and we are finally getting caught up. Still making plans for our next trip, two shows with a weekend off in between. Not planned that way, just something we have to get used to in this business. For the last 4 years we've been doing a show the weekend after Memorial day in Cincinnati called Summerfair. When we do these trips we like to plan two shows on back to back weekends so we can drive up, do the two shows with just several days off in between and then come back home. SO! We applied to a show the weekend before Summerfair and one the weekend after, hoping to get in at least one of them. As fate would have it....we got into both shows, before AND after, then we were promptly rejected from Summerfair! The shows we are in are: Memorial Day Weekend in Harrisburg, Pa. the Patriot-News Art Fest and then June 5-7 in Columbus, Oh, The Columbus Fine Arts Fest. We're going to spend the time between the shows in Hershey, Pa then going to Washington D.C. for a week.
After the two shows we'll drive home, arriving home on June 10. Then on June 17 we fly out to California for 10 days for my nephews bar mitzvah.
Patty just finished painting a piece that's one of my FAVORITE pieces! See photo on right, it's from Monument Valley in Az. This was done in a small size for an order but we can do this piece in any size. I love the colors and how she painted the tree limb on the bottom.
We're leaving next week and will be gone for a few weeksso not sure if I'll be able to update the blog while I'm gone. Come see us and if you can't, order one of our pieces from the website! Call us! 877-512-3333
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 Patty Just finished painting this piece for an order.
For order information and to see a larger picture:
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5-8-09 WE ARE BACK HOME! Three weeks on the road! We did shows in Atlanta, Ga., Birmingham, Al. and Dallas, Tx on back to back to back weekends. 3550 mIles in 21 days. Most of the driving was split up, a day here or there. The ride home from Dallas was the longest, 3 days 1400 miles dragging a trailer. By the end of the third day we were both ready to get out of the truck! It's good to be home, 3 weeks worth of mail and home maintenance waiting for us.
We're only home for 2 weeks then we head out on the road for another three week trip. The scary part about this next trip is that's its to two new cities/shows we have not done before. We never know what to expect. If you live near Harrisburg, Pa or Columbus, Oh, come see us. If you know anyone that lives near either of these towns, please email or call them and let them know we are coming.
Patty's busy painting a few orders then she's going to try to get a few pieces done for us. I stay busy updating the website, applying to shows and making travel plans. One worthy note: I turned 50 this past week! Spent my birthday in the truck driving almost 600 miles, had a nice lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse, the BEST chocolate cake!
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4-10-09 We've been home for a week now and I'm starting to get caught up. There's always SO much to do when we get home from a show trip. I always try to get almost everything done in the first few days, then I can relax a bit. We've got another few days at home before leaving on our next trip. We leave on April 15th and will be gone until May 7th. During that time we'll do shows in Atlanta, Birmingham and Dallas before returning home. I'll spend my birthday, May 5th, in the truck driving home from Dallas. During those 3 weeks we'll put just over 3000 miles on our truck.
I did take time off this, yesterday I went to the beach, took a nice long walk on the beach, swam in ocean and relaxed and watched people. Good day!
A few days ago we received our acceptance to a show in Stone Mountain, Ga. The Yellow Daisy Festival in September. This will be our 9th year in a row for doing this show, it's usually very good for us.
This has been a very typical week for us, making hotel reservations for our trip, travel arrangements, we have to leave on this day and drive this far in order to be in this place on this day to set up for a show. On this next trip we have time in between shows to try and figure out where to go and what to do. And now, all on a very tight budget.
I've really been getting involved with Facebook, it's been a lot of fun. If you haven't tried it, I would suggest giving it a go. It's free and you can find people from high school and college that you haven't seen in awhile. If you have a Facebook account or sign up for one, find us on there and keep in touch with us. I post photos of our work usually once or twice a day. You can find us at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1337742581
Thanks again for reading our blog!
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 Shellye and Tina's Abundance Tree. It's named that because the tree is in the back yard of their Cabin retreat, Abundance Retreat, in the hill country of Wimberly,Texas. They invited us to stay there and we took this photo while we were there. Patty painted little animals on the frame, you have to look for them, there's a squirel, an owl and a bird. If you would like information on staying at their retreat, the link is here:
Tina took this photo and emailed it to me. If you own one of our pictures, please take a photo and email it to me. I'll add it to our website!
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4-2-09 We are home! We left on March 23 to drive to Houston. Three days getting there, three days of doing the show, two days off, one before the show and one after and then three days driving home. 2550 miles total, most of that in 6 days of getting there and back. It's good to be home but this was a really good trip. We stayed with a couple, Shellye and Tina, that bought one of our pictures last year. We really got to know them and really enjoyed the hospitality they showed us. It's one of the things I enjoy most about being an artist. We get to meet and know on a personal level so many people that would normally never come into our lives if we were selling our artwork in a gallery. We also delivered one of our pictures and went to lunch, Texas Barbque, with Dan and Joy. They purchased their second Albin at the show. We took it to their home which was filled with spectacular art. They actually took down a Chagall to hang our picture in their living room. Joy said it's hanging in the spot that she will look at every morning while having her coffee. What a great compliment! Thanks again for hanging our artwork in your amazing collection.
On the way home we stopped in Biloxi, Ms. and stayed one night at the Palace Casino. It's such a great deal and the rooms are awesome! There's a really good buffet there, crab legs, prime rib cut to order and lots of deserts. After dinner we gambled a little, I came out 10.00 ahead so I consider that a victory and then went out to their hot tub and pool over looking Biloxi Bay. What a great day! We're home for a grand total of 13 days then we leave for 3 weeks on our next road trip to Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, then back home.
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 Dan and Joy's Autumn Trail
 Dan and Joy's first Albin, Mills Lake
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3-16-09 What a great weekend!! Sometimes Patty and I shake our heads in disbelief at all of life's wonders we get to experience while participating in art shows. This weekend was one of those weekends! To start off we won our second award this year, a first place award at one of the oldest art shows in Florida, the Under the Oaks Art Fest in Vero Beach. After packing up Sunday night we out to dinner with another artist to a great little restaurant on the Indian River. Just as we were finishing dinner we noticed on tv that the space shuttle was getting ready to take off. We were only about 75 miles from where it took off. We walked out next to the river, at sunset and watch a spectacular launch of the shuttle. It's truly amazing to see in person, even from 75 miles away!
This week we'll tie up loose ends in prep for our trip to Houston. We leave on Monday and will be gone for 10 days. Thanks to all of you that stopped by to see us this weekend and purchase our artwork, it REALLY is appreciated!!!
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 Patty with our first place award at Under the Oaks, Vero Beach.
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3-10-09 A loooong weekend!! I had a bad feeling when we signed up to do the show we did this past weekend. Setup was early Saturday morning, 6:30 am and the show went to 11:00 that night. To make matters even more tiring, we set our clocks ahead this weekend so we lost an hour of much needed sleep. The show started at 10:00 am and went till 8:00 pm Sunday night. After that we had to pack everything up and dolly it over to the trailer. The good new is, Patty and I work so well together. We were able to pack up and go in just over an hour. The bad news is, we didn't sell a thing all weekend! I really enjoyed doing the show, next year I plan on going as a patron. Great music, food, location and people, it's really a fun time. Just not as an artist! Hours way too long, too much work and not our crowd.
Couple that with two rejections letters from shows, one today and one yesterday, if I wasn't such a naturally cheerful person it would be time for a serious dose of anti-depressants!
We don't have time to pout about what could have been, our next show is this weekend. It's a three day show with setup on Thursday. So we won't even bother unloading the trailer. Basically, we'll come home, wash clothes, tie up a few loose ends and go right back out again.
If you saw us at the show this past weekend and you thought about purchasing from us, it's not too late! Order a piece off the web and we'll ship it to you. You know you want to!!!!
Thanks for reading, see you next week.
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 Patty finished a 35x41 piece on Friday before the last show. It got a lot of attention, it's looking for a good home!!!
 Don and Michelle from Tom's River, N.J. and the Sunset Triptych they purchased from us.
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2-28-09 If you are one of the people that are visiting this page, thank you. I had just about given up, thinking no one was reading this. I checked earlier today and found out people are actually stopping by to see what we are up to. THANK YOU!
It's been a strange month with two shows, out of town guest staying with us and we actually received several acceptance letters to shows that have, in past years, turned us down. For the first time we are in the Columbus Arts Festival in June. If you know anyone that lives near Columbus, please email them and tell them we are coming. Send them a link to our website. Tell them to come to the show and buy something from us!!! It's always a bit scary going to a show for the first time. Columbus is supposed to be a very difficult show to get in to. We've been turned down several years prior to this.
Patty just finished painting a piece from Rocky Mountain National Park, called Bierstadt Lake. See picture on right. It's a very peaceful piece with a bit of spectacular thrown in. Our last South Florida show for the year is next weekend. This could be one of the longest days we've EVER had at an art show! I still can't believe I signed up to do it! Saturday morning we have to be in Miami at 6:30 am for setup and we have to stay until 11:00pm when the show closes. Ah, the glamorous artist's life. If you live near Miami, come see us, maybe just stand behind me and catch me if I start to fall asleep!
Ok, I promise to be more on time with my updates to this page. Email me at: albinarts@gmail.com and let me know what you think of our blog. I need the encouragement to keep me going!
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 Bierstadt Lake
Patty was painting this piece at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. She finished it 2-27-09.
It took that long to finish because she had to order colored paint markers with a very fine point to make small lines in the lower left corner. She couldn't get the lines small enough using even her smallest paint brush.
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2-4-09 Patty just finished a piece called White Water. It's a piece we haven't done for quite some time. The photograph was taken when we were on our honeymoon in New Hampshire. It's on one of the trails on Mt. Washington. See a picture of it to the right and on our In Stock page.
Big news this week! We were accepted into two good shows. The Atlanta Dogwood Festival in April and The Cottonwood Art Festival in May in Dallas. We know a lot of artists that were rejected from these shows so we feel very lucky to have gotten into both of them.
On the other side of this, I've been bogged down with figuring out the logistics of getting from place to place, hotel reservations and travel plans. How far can we drive in one day, finding a hotel for those nights. I really should become a travel agent at this point! Need someone to plan a trip for you? Give me a call, I can handle it!
Did you know we can custom make one of our picture for you in just about any size? Click here for details.
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1-28-09 This has been an exciting week! We won Best in Show at last weekends art festival. I've been writing press releases all week and sending them out to local newspapers and reporters but, as usual, the local press is just not interested. It's been very frustrating, we've had newspapers around the country do stories on us but can't get our local paper to mention us at all.
We're off this weekend, the weather is supposed to be iffy so that's good and our next show is the following weekend. We're doing a show in Fort Myers for the first time so we'll see how that goes. It's always a bit tougher doing a show in a new area. We don't have people that have seen us before or purchased from us before. As you are probably aware, we send out newsletters telling about our return to a show and our new work. When we do a show in a new area, there's no one to send anything to. We're totally depending on people walking by and seeing us for the first time to purchase from us. Well, we'll see how it goes. We heard quite a few artists did very well at this show last year so we applied, got accepted and we'll give it a try.
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1-21-09 We have a new president! I know, some of you are excited while others are terrified. All we can do is wait and see what the future brings.
Good news this week! We were accepted into the Under the Oaks Art show in Vero Beach in March! It's been a really good show for us in the past and typically one of or favorite shows of the year to do. It's in a really beautiful park setting and has a very easy setup and breakdown. I know that doesn't mean a lot to most of you but to us, it's BIG! We typically do about 20-24 shows a year and we have to setup and breakdown at everyone of them. Some are very easy and others are a nightmare. So when we do make it into an easy show to do, it's a good thing.
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1-14-09 This week Patty's daughter, Lindsay, bought her first home, a villa not too far from us! Patty's been working all week over there helping her paint, shop for curtains, accessories, etc. I've been sending out emails to announce or upcoming shows, applying to shows and making travel arrangements. We're still waiting to hear if we made it into several shows for March and April.
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1-7-09 This past week has been very busy. Getting ready for the up coming show this weekend, re-designing the website and a little travel thrown in. I've redone all of the pages you click on, on the left of the screen. I've tried to make them more user friendly. If you get the chance, please send me an email and let me know what you think. I'd like to know if you are finding your way around the website easily and if you want to order a piece, is it easy to do with the shopping cart system we are using. Please email me at: albinarts@gmail.com
On Tuesday I flew up to Indianapolis and helped a fellow artist drive down to Fort Lauderdale. He recently had surgery and has a hard time driving long distances. He's also in the show this weekend in Miami. I got to experience a day of winter, that was long enough! It was cold, in the low 30's and a rainy/wintery mix. I arrived in Indy about 1:00 pm and we started driving down right from the airport. It rained most of the way home and took us about 26 hours with stopping for food and a bit of sleep. I'm back home now and enjoying the 70 degrees of South Florida!
Patty put the finishing touches on the arched top Harmony piece she's been working on, see picture on right. Everytime she finishes a picture, it still blows me away. This is such a beautiful piece! Hopefully, one of you will agree and you'll hang it in your home!!!
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12-31-08 Happy New Year to all! Today I finished out 2008 by going to the beach! The weather was beautiful, low 80's and the ocean was flat-calm. Not a bad way to spend new years eve! J This week we are gettting ready for our up coming shows. Patty is painting a really beautiful piece this week called Harmony She's doing it in a 20x30 photo with a 5.5 inch arched top frame. We did one of these for an order once and really loved it! We wanted to have one to hang in the tent at our next art show. I'd really love to see it done in the 45x55 inch size, if you need a large, truly spectacular piece for your home, this piece will do the trick!
We had a quiet new years this year. Stayed home and shot off fireworks with my son, Marc. He's 18 and a freshman in college. I normally like going out to the big celebrations put on by the city or to a party with friends. This year, I'm not sure why, just felt like staying close to home.
I spent a lot time this week working on our house. We're still trying to sell it, we dropped the price another 10,000.00. It's tough in this market, so many people/banks giving places away. Hope we can find a buyer soon!!!!!
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12-24-08 This has been a week with a bit of an emotional roller coaster. The best statement I have ever heard regarding making your living on the art show circuit, "It's a funny business but no one is laughing!" We had applied to two shows on back to back weekends in Houston. If we're going to drive all the way to Houston, 1200 miles, it'd be nice to do two shows, divide the expenses and hopefully make the trip more profitable. The first show is well established and gets over 1000 applications; it's pretty tough to get into. The second show is a bit smaller; less established and according to their email received only 600 applications. We were accepted into the first show and rejected from the second. So this week we've been searching for a back up plan. A show either the week before or the week after the first show; either in or around Houston or on our way to or from Houston. So far no luck, it looks like we'll be driving all the way to Houston for only one show. Hopefully by then gas prices will still be low and the economy will start to turn around. It's the eternal optimist in me!
This week Patty decided she wanted to try something different, an abstract painting. All of the time she is painting she's doing very detailed pieces, mostly with a very small paint brush. She's been wanting to let go a bit and try something different. A while back she bought several archival clay boards mounted on wood. This week she pulled one down and let herself go. The picture on the right is what she came up with and it's for sale! Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Patty's also been working on one of our favorite pictures, Shades of Yellow done in an arched top frame. She finished one not too long ago but it sold. It's such a beautiful piece, she's doing another one. Picture on right.
Well Christmas is tomorrow, we want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and we hope you get everything you want!
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 Title: Water World 1
18x36 inches
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12-17-08 Our first entry, the start of who knows what! This week we're getting ready for the holidays and planning our schedule for next year. There is an unbelievable list of shows to apply for in every corner of the country. The hard part is trying to line up shows on consecutive weekends while we are traveling to minimize the time we spend away from home, staying in hotels and racking up huge bills. You'd think this wouldn't be so hard, just figure out what shows we want to do, sign up and go! Well here's the catch, there's always a catch! We don't automatically make it into every show we apply for. Shows are juried with slides of our work, some shows receive 1500 applications for as few as 200 spots. That means 7 artists get rejected for every one they accept. We have to apply to as many as 3 shows on a single weekend in hopes of getting into at least one of them. Hopefully we get into two shows on consecutive weekends that are fairly close together. At this writing, we have 17 shows we are waiting to hear from and another 15 or so applications to fill out and that will take us through Sept of 2009.
On rare occasions we get into two shows on the same weekend and we get to choose which one to participate in. When this happens, I have an almost uncanny ability to pick the wrong show. We have to decide several months in advance which show to do. In the past, I've picked the show where it's raining, freezing cold or both! The show I didn't pick was clear, sunny and warm.
This week I've spent the better part of two days pouring over show info, talking to other artists to get their perspective of a show, filling out applications, getting our names on mailing lists to receive applications once they come out and making hotel/travel plans for a show in Houston, Tx. we were just accepted to in March.
It's a three day drive to get to Houston from Florida. I'll make hotel reservations for the trip there and while we are there. About two hours after I made our hotel reservations for Houston, we were called by a really nice couple in Houston that ordered a picture from us and they invited us to stay with them while we are there. So no hotel bills in Houston and we really get to become closer friends with two very nice people on a much more personal level!!!! It's one of the things I enjoy most about this job! :)
This week we recieved notifications from shows in Atlanta, Houston, Birmingham, and we're still waiting to hear about more shows in Houston and Miami.
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 Black and White Pacific Inlet. Patty just finished painting this piece last week. Two unusual things about this piece. First, it's black and white, we do so few of these. Second, it's got an inch and half wide scoop liner between the photo and the frame. It's really a great effect, we'll do more like this soon.
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More later here.....
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2004
We really hit our stride and were having a blast! We participated in 26 shows this year, the most we've ever done and hopefully not again. That's a show every other weekend and it was just too demanding of a pace to keep up. Again this year we went a bit further and did a show in North Hampton, Massachusetts. We drove to Louisville, Ky. in Oct then on to North Hampton the following weekend. We stopped in Niagara Falls along the way in between the two shows and stayed there a few days. Patty flew home after the show and I drove the 1400 miles with the truck and trailer. It took 3 days to drive home. It's always a lot longer ride when we do really bad at a show and this one was about as bad as it gets! We didn't sell a thingL It costs us about 2000.00 dollars out of our pocket to participate in the show….and we didn't make a dime! That's a really long 1400 mile trip home!!!
10 of our shows this year were out of state including first time shows in Chicago, Plymouth, Mi. and Frederick, Md. Of all of our out of state shows, Chicago has to be one of our favorite places to go. We arrived a few days before and rode the train into the city, walked around downtown and went to a few plays and the Blue Man Group. This lifestyle is really starting to take us places and see the U.S.
For our picture taking trip this year I went on an 8 day rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, absolutely spectacular! Patty did not want to go because we would be camping out at night. I went with a friend I've known since the 8th grade. I took some really remarkable photos from the bottom of the Canyon. If you ever get the chance, by all means, DO IT! The rafting company I went with was www.gcex.com I highly recommend themJ
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 Vasey's Paradise, a water fall in the Grand Canyon.
 The Little Colorado River, a stunning place to explore!
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2003
This is the year we really started getting acceptance letters from major art shows. We made it into the Winterpark Sidewalk Arts Fest, Gasparilla in Tampa, Festival of the Masters in Orlando and one of the longest running art shows in the country, the Atlanta Dogwood Festival. The key to getting into these shows is having great quality slides/images of your artwork. Most of the major art shows around the country receive 1,000-1,500 applications for as few as 200 spaces. The images of each artist's work is projected onto a screen for about 15 seconds, then jurors score the work based on quality, originality and other factors. Artists with the highest scores are invited to participate, all others are rejected. Most artists fail here because they try to take pictures of their artwork themselves. I thought, I was a professional photographer, I can do this. Wrong! We found a professional photographer, through another artist, to take photos of our work. Having the right lighting equipment, backgrounds, studio camera and tripod are essential to getting great shots of your work.
In April at the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, we won Best in Show 2D, this is one of the most prestigious art shows in the country! J
We did 21 shows again this year, 7 of them were out of state.
Our artwork is starting to increase in size. We're starting to make and sell more of the 45x55 inch pictures. We completely stop making the smallest pieces we were doing, 5x7 photos in 2.5 inch frames. In November we sold the largest piece we ever made, it's 6 feet high and 7 feet wide, of the Grand Canyon. We sold it to a really great couple in New Smynra Beach, Fl. Patty was so excited she screamed as we were driving away from their house. It's a HUGE compliment to an artist when someone spends their hard earned money on our work. This was our first really huge piece of artwork, and it sold!!!!
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 Patty being interviewed by local news about our artwork, in Louisville, Ky.
 Dry Falls, Highlands, N.C.
 Peaceful Shore, Outter Banks, N.C.
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2002
We really started to hit a nice stride in 2002, 21 art show and we started getting into a few of the better art shows. We even went a little further this year to a show in my home town, Louisville, Ky. The St James Art show in Oct. To this point we'd done out of state shows mainly in North Carolina and Georgia. Now we're starting to gain a little confidence and travel a bit farther. Six of the 21 shows we did grossed more than 10,000 dollars and one we actually hit over 20,000! Our mailing list grew so large that we stopped sending out hard mail letters and converted to email to save time, printing and postage costs. Patty was becoming overwhelmed with trying to keep up with demand. Our wait time for orders had gotten to it's longest point ever at 6 months. It's a good problem to have but still it was a problem.
We won our first Best in Show 2D award, it was in Asheville, N.C. at Bele Chere.
We went on an awesome trip this year to Wyoming and Montana. 18 days starting in Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone, N.P. and then on to Glacier National Park. We were there in June and one of the days in Yellowstone it snowed! Living in the heat of South Florida, especially in June, it was a real experience to see it snowing in June. We got our first real snow covered mountain photographs and added a lot more waterfall photos.
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Photos from our Wyoming, Montana trip.
 Oxbow Bend, Grand Teton
 Twin Falls, Glacier N.P.
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2001
Several major achievements this year. To start off on Jan 1st I turned over my carpet cleaning business to the gentleman that purchased it from me. 17½ years of building the business from the bottom up, on one hand I was working way too much, was really burned out and glad to let it go. On the other hand, this was our safety net, we didn't worry too much about having bad shows, the carpet cleaning business would pick up the slack and this was my baby. I had worked so hard to get the business to this point and now I was handing it over to someone else. 99% of me was glad to see it go, carpet cleaning is hard work and I was looking for something I could do for a career change. Patty came into my life at just the right time, we rescued each other and together we would start our art business.
We participated in 25 art shows this year, without the carpet cleaning business to hold me here, we were able to travel more. We did 4 out of state shows, 3 on back to back weekends in July and August in North Carolina. We were really enjoying getting out of Florida in July and August and the mountains of North Carolina was a perfect fit for us.
In Sept. we did a show in Atlanta and had our first show where we made over 10,000 dollars in one weekend! We were now making in a weekend more than I used to make in an entire month cleaning carpets, and I didn't have to move furniture!! J
We were slowly starting to get better and better photographs for Patty to paints frames with. I always wanted to go somewhere while the leaves were changing colors. I thought fall foliage photos would be just awesome done with painted frames. We only had one weekend open in Oct 2001 that we did not have a show to do. We had gone to Tennessee in Oct. 2000 but the leaves had not changed completely and it rained most of the time we were there. I did not want to make that mistake this year, I wanted some really GREAT photos. I started by calling a few of our customers that lived in New England, Maine, the leaves had already turned, Pennsylvania was still pretty green, my third call was to Connecticut. Leaves were in peak season. I checked the weather forecast to make sure it wasn't going to rain and found a great last minute deal on a plane ticket. I called the state park service and asked them where's the best waterfalls in Conn.? I spent 6 days there, no hotel reservations, hiking all day, including parts of the Appalachian Trail in New York. To this day, these are still some of the best photographs I have ever taken!
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Photographs from the fall foliage trip in Sept. to Connecticut, New York & Mass.
 River of Gold, Southford Falls St. Pk.
 As Time Goes By, Wadsworth Falls St. Pk.
 Shades of Yellow, Southford Falls
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2000
This our first year to participate in 20 shows in one year. We do our first out of state show, Bele Chere in Asheville, N.C the last weekend in July and follow it up the following weekend with a show in Virginia. Our first big road trip! We left a few days early and spent some time Smokey Mountain National Park, Highlands, N.C. and went to Chimney Rock Park on our way to Virginia.
We won 5 awards this year including a third place award at Bele Chere, a most creative artwork at the show in Va. and several other third place awards in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
Patty has long given up massage and her part time job at the frame shop. She's a full-time artist and stays at home to paint, ALL THE TIME. It's getting to the point where it's taking over our lives. The demand for our work started to take off and she was working 10 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep up. This year Patty made one small change to our artwork that really makes sales take off. Up to his point we had been using 2 ½ inch wide mats, un-painted, in between the photo and the frame. We discarded the mats and went to ¾ inch liners between the photo and frame. Less separation between photo and frame was much more appealing to the eye and in turn sold much better.
I was still cleaning carpets full time during the day, coming home and making frames at night and then doing shows on the weekends, 20 of them this year! I was going nuts! I remember the point when I finally said, something has to change. I had taken my kids to the movies, we all came out after the movie and I could not find my car keys. We walked over to the car and the found the keys, locked in the car, still in the ignition and the car was still running. With everything on my mind, I simply forgot to turn the car off, got out, locked the doors and went inside. We called Patty to come bring us the spare set of keys. Later that night Patty and I talked about selling the business I had built myself over the past 16 years. The money I was making from cleaning carpets kept us going in between shows, it was a scary thought to make a go of it on our artwork alone.
This year our big trip was to Arizona and Utah. 18 days total in the Grand Canyon, Lake Powel, Painted Desert, Bryce and Zion National Parks. I bought a medium format camera, larger negative and now we can make really large photographs!
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Pictures taken on our Arizona, Utah trip.
 Desrt View point, Grand Canyon
 Rainbow at Mojave Point, Grand Canyon
 Virgin River, Zion National Park
 Natural Bridge, Bryce National Park
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1999
We did 12 art shows this year, most of them were smaller shows in and around South Florida. We're still staying fairly close to home, keeping our expenses low and our risks even lower. We had a huge 5 month lay off in between shows, April-September. Patty had stopped doing massage because her fingers were starting to give out so she found a part time job at a frame shop during the lay off. We had our first show this year that grossed over $1,000.00. We thought, this could work! We were still learning about which shows to do and which shows to stay away from. We met many wonderful artists along the way, some we are still friends with, that gave us really good advice about good and bad shows. At this point we are still learning the old fashion way, trial and error.
After winning an award in our very first show, we did 12 shows this year and didn't win a single award at any of them. To be fair, some of these shows didn't hand out awards.
Patty and I are amazed, we're starting to get our first collectors. People coming to our shows to purchase their second or third piece from us. We're still very flattered by this today. That NEVER gets old!! J
We went to California for our first wedding anniversary. Spent two weeks there, one on the coast going to Big Sur, Carmel and San Fransisco and one week in Yosemite National Park. There are pictures we use today from this trip too. You can see some of them on our California Page.
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Taken on our first year anniversary trip to California.
 Pacific View, near big Sur
 California Dreamin, near big Sur
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December, 1998
Our first art show, the Woodstock Festival in Sunrise Fl. We decided to purchase a tent and do 3 art shows. See if we liked it and see if we thought people would respond well to our work. The first day we were sooo excited, people were coming by and telling us how much they liked our work BUT we didn't sell a thing. We were so depressed, we went home without eating dinner and went to bed. Woke up Sunday morning and tried our best to be positive and went the show. At noon we sold our first piece for $400.00 and about an hour later someone from the show came by and told us we had won first place in the arts category at the show and that came with a check for a couple of hundred dollars. They liked us! We went out celebrating that night and our careers as artists were off and running!
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May 22, 1998. Patty and I are married at the Riverside Hotel on Las Olas Blvd. A small ceremony with only 22 people, family and friends. It was all we could afford at the time. For our honeymoon we went to Wolfeboro, N.H. and stayed at a little cabin right next to lake Winnipesaukee. Some of the pictures we use today were taken on our honeymoon. You can see them on our New Hampshire page here: http://www.albinarts.com/nh.htm
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 Taken on our honeymoon in the Mount Washington area of N.H.
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June 14, 1997 Patty and I meet on our blind date. Fixed up by mutual friends. I owned a carpet cleaning company at the time and Patty was a massage therapist. I was recently divorced and Patty had been divorced for 10 years and had just gotten out of a 6 year long relationship.
It was about as close to love at first sight as it gets but not quite. It took us several weeks. We moved in together after only 3 months and were married in May 1998.
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