Adding to My Collection

Are you an artist? Are you also an art collector? I am both, and I love collecting the art of others. Living in Florida, we are at the start of the outdoor art show season. For the next three months, we have a few choices each weekend of wonderful art shows to attend. I've been to many, but there was always one on my list that remained elusive, until now. Last weekend I went to the biggest of them all, the Las Olas Art Fair. This show goes straight down the closed-down Las Olas Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale, with 300 artists. I've seen a few of the artists before, and bought some of their pieces. There were a lot of new ones too. Here are some trends I saw:

-- Not a lot of traditional oil painting, but the ones there were amazing.
-- Most of the pottery was Raku.
-- The jewelry at this show was top-notch. Jewelry booths didn't take over, though, like at a recent show where 56 of the 250 booths were jewelry.
-- Resin-coated paintings are really in. I saw about 10 artists who did that. I'm not sure I like it though. It gives such a shine to the piece, and I really like texture and being able to feel the texture of the painting. I guess growing up in Cocoa Beach, they just remind me of surfboards.
-- Mixed media paintings are developing a stronghold in major art shows, which is nice to see. I like the combination of paper with paint, and the addition of pencil and other media to the paint.
-- Blown glass is becoming more popular. I saw some amazing artists who are stretching the boundaries, including geometrics in blown glass by layering colored glass upon colored glass.

And finally, here is the piece that I got. It's hanging in the main room of my house so everyone can see it.


It is a long, pottery tube that could be used as a hanging vase. The artist's name is Tanya Tyree, and she is from Afton, Virginia. She explains that this piece is hand built, without the use of molds or templates. She adds original abstract drawings, it is glazed, and then raku fired. What I like most about this is all the different motifs -- house, sun, bird, trees -- and you see something new each time you look. The colors are great with my buttery-yellow wall and light blue and brown furniture.



You can see more of Tanya's art here.