Wow !

 What an experience at the Fair this year.

 Our new exhibit space, The J.P. Hall Pavilion, was wonderful...a well lit, clean, & secure building to exhibit the beautiful paintings, drawings, & collage, & photographs. Our new displays built by fair volunteer Tony Tharp were a welcome addition. 169 entries were accepted by AGOP volunteers into the exhibit. There were 63 winners rosette ribbons, 177 participant ribbons, & 2 People's Choice plaques & Rosette ribbons awarded this year. Also 8 winning entries from the concert on the Green poster contest were displayed in the exhibit hall. Each day the Kid'z Art activities attracted "budding artists" to this year's projects. Mouth artist Tony Ryals of www.artofhope.com provided hours of entertainment with his unique talent - painting with his mouth. He also painted dozens of faces with his beautiful ocean art ! We're sure he inspired many new artists with his amazing painting demonstrations. The 150th anniversary of Clay County was celebrated by a 20' coloring wall mural provided by www.monstermurals.com . Hundreds of children of all ages enjoyed "drawing" on the wall. The Clay County Historical Society & members of the Art Guild of Orange Park provided pages to color from their historical, Sesquicentennial (1858-2008) coloring book. Our volunteers were diligent in obtaining & counting the People's Choice votes & visitors to the exhibit. As a result I was able to attach a tally sheet on each entry informing the artist/photographer of their total votes. Our judge (St. Augustine artist/teacher  Patricia Pollock) also left a note on each entry - I thought this was a nice touch. She worked from 10AM - 5PM ! Thanks Patricia for the extra effort ! Because of our location the volunteers maning the exhibit enjoyed a variety of entertainment outside the building. I noticed a lot of "sing-a-longs" going on during the days & evenings. The Pig races were a draw too - thank goodness we have windows in the building of I would have been short staffed often !  We made lots of new contacts with teachers & artists at this year's exhibit. There was a lot of new interest in the Art Guild & next year's exhibit.   Volunteers from the the surrounding areas, the Art Guild & Penny Farms Retirement Community staffed & cleaned the exhibit building before, during, & long after the Fair's open hours of operation. Without this volunteer staff we could not have this exhibit open every year !  I'm sure next year will be a full competition so wet those brushes, sharpen those pencils, & click those pic's & I'll see you March 31, 2009 !

And thanks again from your Clay County Fair Open Painting & Photography Exhibit Superintendent Lynette Woodman

 

Wait till you all see our new building at the Clay County Fair this year.

We will be in the J.P. Hall Family Pavilion. It is a bright, well lit building.

We have beautiful new display moduals for the photography exhibit.

We will have a 20' x 6' wall mural for the Kidz Art  project. It is provided by www.monstermurals.com and celebrated the 150th anniversary of Clay County.

 When finished it will be presented to the Clay County Historical Society.

The kids will have a great time coloring in the mural and we will also have crayons & the  pages from our historical coloring book for the kids to color.

I'm working on a surprise artist for the demo/exhibit this year....I will let you know what develops...  Lynette

Daytona Beach, Florida  Hilton

 

Well, the girls went on a "road trip" again... Guild members Jeannie & Barbara were the first to arrive and had to go on a shopping trip at the local mall...Barbara forgot her banquet dress at home ! Pat arrived late Friday (previous commitment in St. Augustine signing in the runners). Lynette & Rita (the magpie!) arrived at 4 PM and checked out the convention before it closed for the night. Sonya & Louise arrived late but in time for hotel hijinks ! Lots of laughing in their room! Next day time to watch painting demos, grab freebies, buy LOTS & LOTS of art supplies, listen to lectures & walk on the fast disappearing Daytona Beach...so sad to see the ocean slowly creeping up to the sea walls...no more driving on the beach. went to see the watercolor show - very nice but, some of the winners were confusing.  Saturday morning (after very little sleep - too much fun in the party room!) time to go & watch the paint around. Several great artists & one "confused" artist participated Very different from previous years is all I will say! Saturday night - time for the awards banquet...sat with Jeannie, Barbara, Joyce & Therese. Nice time.  There was a great discusion panel at the yearly meeting on Sunday morning. Panelists & artist expressed concern about the future artists in schools with very little funding for the arts. Lots of grants are out there for the taking & attending artists & retailers want to help fund art programs.  Addresses were exchanged ...we will see what happens. The member vetoed the boards definition of acceptable entries into the yearly show. Most members present would like to keep the wording a "true" definition of watercolor - watercolor paint & paper. The entire membership will be polled to arrive at a definition for next years competition. The concensus was...it's a watercolor society not a water media society !!! Check out the web site for results on this controversial subject.

When we tried to check out there was lots of confusion  with the hotel bellman & the luggage... oh well had lots of fun anyway. Next on the agenda ... St. Augustine's Tactile Show/Black & White Show, Art Walks, & the "Trilogy Series" Show at the Village Gallery. We are getting soooooooooo busy lately !  

The adventures continue at a rapid pace ... Guild members Sonya, Susan, Louise, & Lynette were all juried into the "Still Lifes Show" in St. Augustine.

 

The Fine Arts Exhibit at the Clay County Fair looks great again this year...lots of guild members won lots of ribbons ! winners are listed on the awards pages. 

Kid's Art at the fair went well - lots of collage art was created by lots of happy hands!

 

Lynette again won ribbons (14) in the Home Arts exhibit ! Judy Daly won 2 first place ribbons for her minature hand painted floral & nautical pins !

 

Beth Hazlip won the Jacksonville Jazz poster contest this year! Her beautiful images are all around town. 

 

Faith Wolf is on her way to Costa Rica's rainforest region with Russell Baptist Church's Word of Life Missions. They will be helping build church buildings & sidewalks and Faith is bringing her paints to help with a mural & face painting for the children attending the mission camp.  

 

Sonya, Lynette, & Louise are immersed in the Art Center C0-0p in Jacksonville. They had a great time at the First Wednesday Art Walk pouring wine & visiting with over 800 visitors to The Art Center Gallery's exhibit. Carolyn & Lynette met Shannon Ogdon from First Coast News & informed him on some of the community efforts the guild is involved in - including funding the Art programs at Wilkenson Elementary School in Middleburg. He will be suggesting this story to newscaster Jennie Blalock...cross your fingers...the art teachers in Clay County need a lot of help in funding their programs. 

Once again Sonya & Lynette went off on an adventure...Louise had to work so this time we dragged Pat V with us - I don't know how she fit in the truck! We went to the St. Augustine Art Association's Landscape Show. Lynette was thrilled to have been juried into the show along with Bob Williamson & Carolyn Day. We saw many wonderous landscape paintings & some questionable landscape (?) entries... judges opinions are so "interesting" sometimes. Oh well, what are ya gonna do ! We then went to Mikee's Art supply  (on US1 just past 312). You all must visit this place...it's a different type of art supply store...lots of one of a kind items at very reasonable prices! The 3 of us are now hard at work creating for our opening at the Art Center in Jacksonville...

 

A BIG THANK YOU

to Louise Cruz for her many hours on the computer creating this beautiful site ! I try to help but most times she's already got it done ! If you have any pictures or information that you would like added to this site, please let us know by e-mail, phone calls or hard copy !