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Eden Gardens
Garden Centre, North Ryde
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Eden Garden Gallery
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Eden Gardens Poster
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Eden Garden Gallery - inside
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Eden Garden Gallery - Display
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Eden Garden Gallery -Entrance
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Eden Garden -Exhibition Launch
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Demo painting session
Demonstration painting using Acrylic paints
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Paintings sold
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Sea Bloom - Eden Garden Demo
Demo painting, a give away for one of my readers.
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First ever solo exhibit...
My first ever solo exhibit held at
Eden Gardens over March - April this year has definitely been one of the most significant achievements in my creative career !
Eden Gardens is a beautiful garden centre on the Northern suburbs of Sydney. Encompassing a nursery, play area and many display gardens where the whole family can explore, relax and enjoy.
There is also the busy "Dragonfly Cafe" for the guests to enjoy meals throughout the day.
Next to the Dragon Fly Cafe, is an awesome Gallery (see pic).
This is where my exhibit was set up.
Being a garden centre, any paintings on exhibit have to be of a botanical nature.
Due to a late cancellation, I was given an opportunity to exhibit- I was notified 6 weeks prior to the exhibition date.
From the moment I was given the opportunity to exhibit, the co-ordinators at Eden Gardens made the exhibition process effortless.
They produced all the posters (see pic), catalogue and tags for all the paintings.
All I had to do was to provide a minimum of 15 paintings and help hang up my paintings, however they did charge a 40% commission for any sales I made.
At the time of being notified, I had four small works of art. So, being very brave - I set up a target to complete 11 more pieces of artworks by the week before exhibition opening day (Yikes!).
Inside the Gallery...
Eden Gardens Gallery, had enough space for 25 pieces of art to hang.
There were approximately 8 panels (approximately 1.2metre wide), a large wall at the back & an inviting entrance.
I initially started off with small paintings, and as I produced more and more paintings - my confidence in my own painting ability and technique also grew (I have only painted with Acrylics medium since June 2012).
I have done some painting in oils, however that was about 10 years ago. When I paint in oil, I normally have a sketch or subject matter in mind prior to the actual painting.
So in the surrounds of Eden Gardens I was inspired by the decorative dragonflies and the "Dragonfly Cafe" and lotus ponds and waterlilies and I was drawn to paint them.
The theme...
So I produced four "Lotus" themed paintings in oil - however, as oils take longer to dry - I used Acrylic mediums (primarily local Aussie brand Matisse) for the remainder of my paintings.
When I use acrylic paints, I paint intuitively - that is, I have no subject matter in mind - I make marks, splatter and spray water, paint layer upon layer until I see an image.
Once I see the image - it sets the scene for the rest of the painting.
I had only recently started to paint intuitively (6months!).
To me, I feel that the most beautiful paintings I have produced are my intuitive paintings. I managed to produce 18 intuitive paintings for the exhibit. Within 6 weeks, I was able to produce 14 acrylics and 4 oil paintings - a huge undertaking and achievement, especially with 2 young kids and a part-time job.
I would have to say, I was very brave to take on such an enormous task, but I really believed that I could achieve this. I also offered to volunteer to do a painting demo at the garden centre over two weekends.
The demo was attended by a small group that stayed through to the end, whilst many other visitors dropped in and out to suss out what I was doing.
By the end of the exhibit, I managed to sell 6 paintings Yay!
Very happy indeed!
Thankyou to my family and friends...
The exhibition wouldn't have been possible without the help of my family and friends - I would especially like to thank my husband, and my children's grandparents who helped in looking after my kids during the painting process & throughout the exhibition period.
Thank you to my friend Nancy and sister Sharon, for helping me hang the paintings.
Also for the customers, those who stayed to watch the demo, and to my many online art community friends who have kept me inspired and motivated.
A special giveaway for my fans and readers...
As a thankyou to my readers, and support received from my fans through Facebook - I would love to giveaway the painting I created during my demo at Eden Gardens -
"Sea Bloom" - acrylic 12 x 12" or 30x30cm, on a stretched gallery canvas, ready to hang!
For your chance to win this piece of Art, all you have to do is to either leave a comment on this blog, or leave a comment on the post in my
Facebook page for this giveaway post.
The lucky winner will be drawn on Friday 24th May!
Good luck, and thankyou for stopping by!
Teresa
xo