Mainsail Art Festival - I Am A Patron Of The Arts

On April 22 I did something really crazy last month.  Really crazy.  I bought original artwork at the Mainsail Arts Festival down here.  Civility doesn't allow me to tell you how much I spent.  Well, civility and embarrassment.  Here is the story.

For 37 years the Mainsail Arts Festival has been setting up shop for a weekend at the Vinoy Park.  Artists from all over the country exhibit and sell their work.  Not only is it a showcase to show and sell, but it is also a juried event with cash prizes up to $10,000 for first place.

      Mainsail Art Festival is a very cool place to go.  You can dress up if you like, but most people are wearing shorts.

We attended last year but for some reason we were rushed and vowed this year we would take our time and look at all the vendors and artists' work.  Maybe even buy something.  This time I walked by the works of Marian Pacsuta (Pa-shoo-ta) and instantly loved the stuff.  Very impressionistic, mostly beach scenes, and full of passion.

We talked a bit with her and her assistant, two lovely and fun people, and looked at their paintings, all oil, and all rich with color.  I learned that she does very little sketching, and a great deal is done plain air, which means out in the open air.   Photographs do not give her the color that being in the field does.  I complimented her on her work and I honestly told her that of all the things at the festival, I liked hers the best.   

The next day, with a great deal of urging from others, I returned to Mainsail originally after a piece titled, "Stopping By After Work".  It was a dark bar scene with shadowy figures at the far end.   I liked its mood and universality.  When I returned I didn't see that piece and surmised it had been sold.  There was another bar scene painting entitled "Bourbon Street, but it didn't have the punch for me the other one did.   

However, two others I had liked very much were still there and I figured I could get a couple of hers instead of just one, and that would be better.  One was one of my favorites from yesterday and the other one was very fondly admired by many people.  One was masculine and the other feminine and I thought that was a good mix.  

I honestly told her I had never bought original artwork before and wasn't sure what the procedure was.  She told me it is permissible to negotiate a price, and since I wanted to purchase two items, I threw a number out and she immediately accepted.  Negotiations apparently don't have to take long.  Anyway I was thrilled with my purchases and for a few moments saw myself a bit like Frasier snobbishly and arrogantly reviewing a piece of artwork.  

Mother and Child,  by Marian Pacsuta

Many of Ms. Pacsuta's work are beach scenes.  She lives in Florida but her home gallery is in Nashville.  The above work is a light pastel oil that I liked because of the color and the renditions of the people.  A mother, or grandmother, perhaps on the beach with their wee one.  I liked the image of the caregiver bending to assist or just see, and the youthful childish impishness of youth.

Muscle Beach, by Marian Pacsuta

This painting I saw as an almost opposite from the above painting.  Two guys prowling the beach and showing off, perhaps to friends in the distance.  This painting has the vivid color the first painting does not, which makes the light and dark areas all that more powerful.  Where the first painting is serene and thoughtful, the one above is in your face, youthful braggadocio.  It's a statement of the sense of immortality in the summer sun; a classic vision of boys becoming men, a day of joy with friends.

I was able to get the artist to pose with my new paintings.

"I want my paintings to read clearly with a minimum of rendering. In fact, I stop painting well in advance of what most would regard as a finished work.

It is my way of preserving the spontaneity of the human spirit using paint. This is an important characteristic of the way I function ~ and adds its own flavor to my work."

I have never plunked down a a lot of money for something that hangs on a wall.  Well, I did this weekend, and I felt classy, then broke.  But every time I see my paintings on the wall, I feel classy all over again.  Being broke may pass, but feeling classy lasts forever.   

POSTSCRIPT:  

I purchased my 3rd Pacsuta for Nancy for Mother's Day.  OK, my spending spree is over.  Three paintings should take care of me for awhile.  I've got a wedding to take care of, a bike to pay off, Mets tickets for the family to buy, I still want an iPad, and I'm taking a cruise in 

2013.  I better find a job soon or Dick Blick, here I come!

The Girl In The Green Dress, Oil on Linen

This ought to give me some domestic currency for a few days.  Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.