Yesterday, an artist came into the gallery to say hello. Cheryl Waale paints lovely impressionist paintings inspired by nature, with lots of texture and intense colors. Several years ago, she submitted an application to our Third Thursday Art Walk. It was near the beginning of her career as an artist, as she had recently left behind the hectic and soul-killing life of the corporate world.
She was quite flabbergasted when first one, then two, and then more and more of her paintings were sold to Edmonds Art Patrons. She found a home at the downtown Edmonds shop Housewares, where you can still see and purchase her paintings.
Just recently, she decided to submit a proposal to the Edmonds Mural Society to see if perhaps her work might be chosen to be one of the 5 murals they plan to mount this coming summer on the many blank walls of downtown Edmonds. And much to her amazement, her proposal was indeed selected.
Stunned at this exciting turn of events for her, Cheryl reflected on her growing career as a fine artist and asked me if we ever felt like the fairy godmother of artists, because of all the emerging artists we've nurtured over the years as the founders and directors of the Third Thursday Art Walk, now in its 9th year. She told me about the April 15 Art Walk, which she was attending as a patron. A visit to Bluefish Designs, an Art Walk participant, had another emerging artist showing colorful and whimsical paintings of cats. This artist, Fran Downs, had just sold one of her paintings. In fact, Fran had told me of this exciting sale. What Cheryl added to the mix was that this was the very first painting of Fran's to sell! The sale of an artist's first piece is one that remains in their memory forever.
On that same April 15 Art Walk, we got to hear about the two photographs sold at the Resident Cheesemonger by Finn Gaaras. And Howard Frank came by to thank us because he sold one of his impressionist landscapes while being hosted by Edward Jones Financial Services.
And not least, Joel Patience has found great satisfaction and joy over the success of a painting career that began as art therapy following two car accidents. After nearly a year of encouraging him to participate in the Edmonds Third Thursday Art Walk, he finally took a deep breath and dove in. Since that time, his art career has flourished with many paintings sold, a recent TV exposure and news story, and one of his paintings chosen to be the cover of the Daniel Smith Art Supplies catalog. He regularly comes into the gallery to thank us for believing in him and his art.
It is both exciting and humbling to hear about how these artists are encouraged to get back into their studios and continue painting - all because they took that scary step of putting their work in front of our Edmonds art patrons, and sold something! Art requires an energetic exchange between the artist and the patron. What more wonderful result can be had when those two things come together! The artist continues to grow and expand. The art patron continues to evolve in their tastes and exposure to a wide variety of art. It's truly wonderful!
I feel so happy and honored to be the fairy godmother of all those artists!
Now, where's my wand...
Manya
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