ACCEPTANCE INTO MY FIRST GALLERY, HOWARD FINSTER FOLK ART, AND NEW PAINTING!!! (LONG POST!)

Good Morning!! WOW..the past two days have been a blur. This is my newest painting.
Let me start with Sunday at the Chattanooga Market. We arrived, and set up, and the day went pretty well. Nature Boy and I ate too much sugary goodies, and both of our heads were swimming...but the day went ok. Not one of the better days that we had there, but thanks to Nature Boy's robots--we had an ok day of sales.

Late in the day, this woman walked up to us, and was going nuts over our art...and asked if we had ever heard of Howard Finster..well, we HAD!! Years ago, when we were heavy into buying antiques and collectibles, we would go to a Flea Market on Tuesday mornings in Summerville, Georgia. We ran across someone that started talking to us about folk art, and outsider art, and they mentioned Howard Finster. We came home, and looked him up on the computer, and read everything about him. We made plans to visit his home, gallery and museum one day...well..time went on, and we never did get around to making that visit. But, this discovery did start us in our love of primitive folk art.

Fast forward to the Market on Sunday (about 5 years after first hearing of Mr. Finster), and this woman was asking us to put our art in the Howard Finster Paradise Gardens Gallery!! I took my art to her on Monday, not really knowing what to expect, and being a little more than nervous, and she choose 10 of my pieces, and 3 of Nature Boys!!! He's been doing art about what?? 4 months MAYBE, and he's in a gallery!!! I LOVE IT! So, here's the gallery. It's a wonderous place with many, many different things to see. Please go HERE, and read about Mr. Finster. He has an interesting story. He was a preacher, and he combined his love of God with art. He used his art to talk about the Lord, and he held his church services on the same grounds. The Paradise Gardens are under renovation, and are being restored right now. I hope you find the following pictures as interesting and wonderful as I did.

This is the outside of the garage, the first thing you see when you drive into the parking spots.

Then the gallery. This use to be the Finster's house where they lived.

There is art EVERYWHERE. It's amazing!!!

Here's Nature Boy!!! He followed my directions when I said "MAKE A GOOFY FACE!"..LOL..(he really doesn't look like Howdy Doody on steriods most of the time...LOL.

The Mission Statement of the gallery.

A painting on the outside wall. All pictures are outside, none are allowed inside the gallery, because it houses Mr. Finster's original works..(he did over 46,000 signed pieces in his life)....

An old car. This is behind the house.

The chapel that Finster built. They are currently restoring it.

The following pictures were taken while Nature Boy walked around the gardens. I was inside with Whitney, the gallery owner, and we were writing up an inventory sheet.

They have a mosaic garden back there..everything is done in mosaic..So COOL!!

It was such an honor (to me) to be asked to be part of this gallery. I am very excited. It's a wonderful, magical place. I felt like I was sending my children off into the world. Wish me luck!!

Live Artfully!!

~~Suzan~~