Art in the Barn 2024

This weekend I participated again in Art in the Barn hosted by the Draper Visual Arts Foundation. It’s a fun, local show that I’ve done for three years now. I always opt to have a tent outside of the barn at Draper City Park so I can set up my own booth. Every year I consider setting in physically IN the barn, but it gets very crowded in there and it’s just not my jam.

I got to chat with some artists who I met last year and meet a few new faces too. The DVAF brought in a food truck each afternoon and there was plans to have live music playing on Saturday afternoon too. I got to chat with Stasia, a violinist who played at last year’s event. It was awesome chatting with Jacque Tietjen with High Adventure Photography and meeting Brooke Ochs, a contemporary folk artist.

This year, Utah’s summer weather got the best of us though.

On Friday, it was breezy, a little gusty, and a few scattered moments of rain. It was honestly no biggie. My tent held up just fine and my displays are heavy wood and pegboard, so nothing budged. I just had to move things around a little bit when it rained for 10 minutes at a time.

I assumed the weather kept lots of people away. There really weren’t a lot of people, but I knew that in previous years, Friday was typically slower than Saturday.

When I signed up for this show three years ago, I had wicked anxiety about it being super windy and stuff blowing over, so my husband and I built my stuff to withstand those potential winds.

Saturday proved to be different.

There was no rain, but by about 2pm, the winds were gusting horribly. I tried to stay confident that my tent and displays could handle it. I even started painting a little bit. But when one of my 7-foot-tall displays blew over and I could see the wind trying to pull tent stakes out of the ground, I cut my losses and called it quits. Thankfully, nothing was broken.

I did manage to sell a few prints and I gave away a bunch of the Delicate Arch postcards that I had made. I got to bond with a couple of awesome artists too who were my neighbors over the fun weather. Unfortunately, both of my kids had soccer games this weekend, so they couldn’t come and hang out with me and let me browse the rest of the show. So I totally missed getting to see the artwork of my friend’s daughter.

Overall, it was disappointing to have to close up early. Saturday afternoon and evening usually brings the most people. But I also understand that we can’t control the weather. Given that this was my 3rd year at this show and this was the first time the weather played chicken with us, I count myself lucky.

And let’s be honest… a little wind and rain is still WAY better than 100°!

Lone Peak in Watercolor

I have wanted to do a larger painting of Lone Peak for quite a while. It’s the biggest and most prominent mountain that I see from the part of the Salt Lake Valley where I live. I periodically post images of my view on Instagram. You can see the vast differences in weather, light, and colors.

I did a little painting of Lone Peak at last year’s Art in the Barn, as it was viewed from the spot at Draper City Park where my booth was. When looking for photos of Lone Peak, there are many that are taken from the cirque; which is the little valley just below the summit on the east side of the mountain. When people are hiking to the summit, that’s the route that’s taken. I haven’t made it to the summit yet, so I didn’t want to post a photo of that view.

The cross country team my kids run with does weekly trail runs from different trails throughout the south Salt Lake Valley and one park in particular, Steep Mountain Park, has one of my favorite views of Lone Peak. So that’s the view I went with.

I usually have a plan in my head on how I will do any of my paintings… whether it’s a starry sky and what colors it will feature, or a clear day with clouds. With this one, I literally had NO idea what I wanted to do with the sky. I started with a basic blue sky wash and then went in with some toilet paper to lift out some clouds. The AC was on in my house and my wash was drying really fast, so that plan kinda went out the window.

Once I had that first wash done and dry, I decided to come back to it after finishing what I wanted to do with the mountain.

I thoroughly loved playing with the purples and teals in the shadows and figuring out what kind of colors made the sheet granite cliffs that adore the top of Lone Peak. My youngest son watched me for a little while and I was SO PROUD when he noticed the differences in the warmer, yellow-y greens of trees in the sun and the cool, bluer greens of trees in the shade.

When the mountain was all done, I did another wash of my sky blue to make it all darker and then I busted out my Himi gouache paints to figure out some clouds.

My first pass was an attempt to do wispy clouds and I ditched that idea pretty quickly. I don’t have enough experience with gouache to try and make it wispy like I could do with oil paints.

Instead I focused on making them fluffy and tried to give them some dimension and scale. I really like how they turned out.

And then the washi tape I was using to hold the paper down tore off a little bit of the sky!! I was so mad! At least that is easily fixed after I scan the painting and open it in Photoshop.

I am working on a way to have this painting done as a trucker hat for the running club my kids are on and eventually, I will have this available as a giclee print. So stay tuned.

Supplies: (a few are affiliate links)

• Daniel Smith Watercolor

• Himi Gouache Paint

• Polina Bright Watercolor Brushes

• Princeton Velvetouch Watercolor Brushes

• Fluid Cold Press 300lb Watercolor Paper

• Folio Palettes from Art Toolkit

• Canvas Lamp

You can watch a time lapse video of the process here:

I Bought a Mat Cutter!

One day, 20-ish years ago, my BFF Yvonne knew I was looking for a job after being fired from the last one (long story there). She came over and wouldn’t leave until I filled out an application to work at the picture framing store where she was a manager. She knew I would love the work, and I really did. I alternated between full-time and part-time, depending on my school schedule, for about five years at a Bay Area chain called Corners.

For the first few years, we did everything in-house. We cut and joined frames, cut mats, stretched canvas, built shadowboxes, we did it all. I learned how to lay out and cut multi-opening mats. I learned how to sew down an antique christening gown or an autographed football jersey without using any tape or glue. I built shadowboxes for military medals, antique coins, musical instruments, and even a few license plates. I stretched canvases that were up to eight feet long and cut frames to fit. It was such a FUN job.

The sales side wasn’t always fun; especially with customers who had no idea how expensive custom framing is. But my favorite times were the weeks leading up to Christmas. We’d have hundreds of orders to finish before the holiday, so we’d get overtime approved, crank up the music after the store closed, and get it all finished without interruption. I have lots of fond memories of singing and dancing and making some wonderful friends.

I have thoroughly loved framing different things for my home. I may have old, cheap, and mis-matched furniture, but there’s never a shortage of framed photos and artwork to hang on my walls and lots of artwork and empty frames waiting for a larger house to adorn someday.

Last Christmas, I splurged and bought myself a mat cutter. A few times I paid way too much at JoAnn’s for a custom mat to fit a ready-made frame and it was so difficult to justify paying that much when I knew I could do it myself. Of course, my house is small, so I don’t really have anywhere to put it other than the floor of my office/studio.

First thing I cut a mat for??

I framed Kukkiwon 1st degree black belt certificates for my son and myself. We worked our butts off to earn those and they deserved to be displayed with pride.

The next things I cut mats for were my own paintings and prints for my exhibition at Draper’s Art in the Barn, Draper’s Internationals Arts & Crafts Festival, and the Sandy Visual Arts show. Being able to buy full sheets of mat board and cut all of my own mats proved to be a huge money-saving tool.

My knowledge and skill allowed me to cut mats to fit ready-made frames and save on custom framing AND have complete control over how they looked. When I chose mat colors for the exhibition and arts & crafts show, I kept the mats off-white and simple.

When I chose mats for the Sandy Visual Art show, I went with black to really make the colors in the paintings stand out; even though it’s wasn’t necessarily mat colors someone would choose to hang in their home.

I am SO glad I bought this gift for myself. I have so many pieces of artwork I bought from other artists I follow and I cannot wait to get matted and framed.

Next goal: Get a new house with a bigger studio/office space so I can have a whole table for my mat cutter.

Draper's Art in the Barn

I did something scary this summer… well, scary for me. I submitted an application to be one of the artists in a local art exhibition. Every year, the Draper Visual Arts Foundation has an exhibition in a historic barn at a local park. I went to it last year and really loved to see the work on display from local artists. This year, the Draper Art in the Barn exhibition has been expanded to let artists showcase their art in tents outside of the barn too. So they will have more than double the number of artists than any previous year.

I was accepted to be one of the new artists and I’ll have my artwork on display outside the barn. I’m both excited and kind of terrified. This is an ENTIRELY NEW thing for me and to say I feel a little unprepared is an understatement.

I am confident in my art, thankfully. But where I feel unprepared is in the display aspect. I have to bring all of my own display stuff, table, tent, anything else. Thankfully, the show ends at 7pm, so I don’t need to worry about lighting. We are good on a tent and table, but I am having to research how to display my framed artwork in a way that is sturdy, because who knows if it’ll be windy that day. And whatever I do needs to be affordable. I have no idea if I’m going to continue to do this art exhibition thing. I want to, so fingers crossed it’s a positive experience.

Ultimately, cross everything that it isn’t windy! Thats seriously my biggest fear.

I bought myself a mat cutter for Christmas last year, so cutting my own mats will save me a bunch of money. This week I have been cutting mats and getting paintings and prints into frames. Custom picture framing is extremely expensive. I know, I used to be a picture framer! Being able to cut my own mats and use ready made frames is making this a lot less stressful on my wallet.

When it comes to displays though… there are so many options. I will probably get a few grid walls and hooks and see how that goes. Then I will display a few smaller frames on a table with little easels.

Both of these are originals! Both will also have a few giclée print options available for sale too.

I am planning to sell vinyl stickers and I’ll have a bunch of prints for sale in a handful of different sizes. I will have a few paintings in 5x5, 5x7, 8x10, a couple of 8x12, and a few 11x14. They are giclée prints and really beautiful. The giclée printing process provides higher image detail than traditional photo printing. It’s honestly hard to tell the difference between the print and the original… unless you’re me and know which is which.

I am not planning to sell a ton of original paintings because I usually make a few changes to them in Photoshop before I turn them into stickers or prints. But I am considering selling a few originals. A few I may attached a large price tag because I don’t really want to sell them… but I’d be willing for the right price.

All 3 of these are originals paintings

Wish me luck! If this exhibition goes well, I will submit an application to be a vendor at the Draper International Arts & Crafts Festival that’s in mid September too.