Telluride Plein Air 2011

Truly breathtaking, Telluride’s late June into 4th of July Plein Air Invitational, once again had perfect weather, great attendance, and good sales.  If you’ve never been, you might want to plan your trip there next year, and overlap your stay to be able to attend the opening gala, and showing in the park the next days. The organizers do a phenomenal job of rallying the community, keeping people in the know, and the never-ending task of herding this impossibly complex group of artists through a week of host housing, quick draws, artist parties, the gala, and the sale. We say goodbye, all of us worn, sunburned, and wary of a crippled economy. The sales as a whole were up this year by 15% from last year, but down about 30% from years prior to the ever-present downturn, or bubble-burst, or whatever.

I was in the top 5 of sellers this year, so I’m not complaining, I’m just saying, if you’re a collector, there was a lot of amazing work done by rising stars that I know for a fact were going for prices lower than your average gallery ticket, plus you’re supporting a better cause!! For one the main benefactor is the ARTIST, the one creating the thing in the first place, right!! With Galleries, the greedy ones, they take a whopping 50%, the artist painted the painting, paid for a frame, shipped the painting to the gallery, they turn on the lights when they walk in from their parked Range Rovers.  Nothing wrong with Range Rovers, just that the gallery owners I know have a house on the hill, and the artists in the gallery they own do not, lets just put it that way. It is very difficult to have competitive prices, show in the average greedy gallery, while still  turning a profit. Long story short, this Festival and most Plein Air Festivals, take 40% of the sale price and I’m ok with giving it to a group that is doing great things, which the Sheridan Opera House does. I still think it is a bit high and should be 35/65, but more on that in the ideologically stimulating blog I called, “THE PERFECT PLEIN AIR FESTIVAL.”

So the artists get 60% of the sale price, and when your sitting on a body of work from the week, speaking for myself, I am more willing to negotiate a bit on the retail price. This provides a very unique opportunity for collectors, collectors. If you enjoy the plein air genre, GO, SEE, BUY. Below is the body of work I did at the show.  Available paintings can also be seen under the PAINTINGS >LANDSCAPE tabs above. Enjoy.