What a busy week it was! It started out with us getting some painting time in while Wes also had to make a few final tweaks on our website. Thursday morning we headed up to Kingsport, TN to Up Against the Wall Gallery for a showing of our work. It was a beautiful drive as we drove along the winding road through the park towards Gatlinburg where we then got onto the Foothills parkway before getting on the interstate. We arrived at the gallery shortly after lunch and got everything set up with the wonderful help of Whitney who works there. The opening that evening was very well attended and everyone was so interested in the miniatures, as most of them had never seen true miniatures before. With the miniatures being displayed on several nicely arranged easels atop a table, it made it very nice for admirers to be able pick them up and look at them more closely, which they all seemed to quite enjoy! It’s a beautiful gallery and everyone working there was most pleasant and made for an enjoyable evening, which also resulted in a couple of sales. We are also pleased that they will have a few of our miniatures on display year round now.
We spent the night at the beautiful home of Mike and Lisa, the owners of the gallery. Their home is actually a couple of cabins from the 1700’s rebuilt together and it was like getting to stay at a museum with its lovely and interesting interior and furnishings. They spoiled us rotten with delicious caramel cake and breakfast rolls from a local bakery. After learning that my favorite cereal as a child was fruity pebbles, Lisa graciously surprised me with a new box of them for breakfast! I felt like a kid again as I tasted them again for the first time in many, many years! They were as yummy as I remembered and were indeed a treat! After enjoying a stroll through their beautiful yard and numerous flower gardens and being given a few plants to bring home, we said our goodbyes and thank-you’s and headed home.
That evening we went with neighbor friends Beverly and Avery to our Heritage Center here in Townsend to enjoy a wonderful concert featuring the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. The amphitheater had been transformed into a magical place as you walked through the white gazebo decorated with flower arrangements gracefully streaming down and rounded the corner to see yet more lovely flowers scattered precisely about and a table covered in pink satin, featuring drinks and chocolate covered strawberries. We also enjoyed several other delicious treats as they were brought about on trays. The time came for the music to begin and the crowd fell silent as they started up and the melodious sound filled the air. One beautiful tune after another flowed from the many instruments as the conductor led with mesmerizing and gracefully moving hands that resembled the flight of a butterfly with a set destination. The last melody came all too quickly and it was time to once again return to reality and go home.
We were thrilled to learn this past week that we had been honored with the “Yard of the Month” award from the local Tuckaleechee Garden Club, as it was quite an honor! Our Azaleas are still blooming profusely and are quite stunning as you walk along the front path with them lining each side filling the space with their many assorted colored blooms.
This is going to be a very busy week for show openings where we have miniature paintings featured. The following is a list of the shows and the dates and locations for each one.
–Under The Magnifying Glass: Exquisite Miniatures by Wes and Rachelle Siegrist will open Tuesday, May 4 and run through Sunday, July 25, 2010 at The R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport, LA.
Here are the Norton’s newsletters about our exhibit:
http://newsletter.rwnaf.org/May2010/May%202010%20newsletter.pdf – print version
http://newsletter.rwnaf.org/May2010/index.html – online version
-29th Annual Juried Miniatures Art Show April 25 – May 17, 2010: El Dorado Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO
-Masterpieces in Miniature May, 2010: Picture This Gallery, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada.
-19th Annual International Miniature Art Show May 1 – June 5, 2010: Seaside Art Gallery, Nags Head, NC (The Gallery will have our book Exquisite Miniatures by Wes & Rachelle Siegrist available for purchase!
-The Art of the Miniature XVII May 2 – June 12, 2010: Snowgoose Gallery, Bethlehem, PA
-4th Annual Miniature Fine Art Show May 3 – 29, 2010: Artistic Designs Gallery, Brownsburg, IN
-18th Annual International Juried Miniature Show May 4 – June 6, 2010: , Parklane Gallery, Kirkland, WA – We are the judges for this year’s show. There will be an expanded display of our work at the show available for purchase as well as copies of our Exquisite Miniatures Book. We are currently scheduled to appear via Skype at the Gallery the evening of the reception (May 8th}
We hope you will enjoy viewing the various works featured in the shows online or in person.
Still on the easel: I’m continuing to paint on my miniature of the Egret on the boat and also work periodically on my miniature of the horses. I’m hoping to finish the Egret and boat painting this week and will share it next post.
Until next time ~ Rachelle 🙂
Under the Magnifying Glass 
Wow Rachelle,
I am exhausted just reading your schedule. Sounds like you are enjoying yourself as well. Good luck with all your ventures.
Hi Gail,
It was a bit of an exhausting schedule, but things should slow up a bit now. So now we shall enjoy getting to paint more and hope to slip in a few hikes along the way! Thank you for the well wishes!
Rachelle 🙂
LOTS of info in this post! But what hits me is fruity pebbles….really? As much as I cringe at the thought of all the artificial colors and preservatives and sugars in them, maybe I should eat them – That could be why I always struggle with my weight…no fruity pepples! 🙂
Best wishes for successful shows all around!
Hi Deb and Barbara,
Well, I haven’t eaten fruity pebbles in about 20 years, so I figured once every 20 or so years surely couldn’t hurt. Wes and I are very healthy eating vegetarians (we do eat some fish and eggs) that exercise a lot, so once in awhile a little sugar just tastes good I suppose. If you’ve never tried them don’t start as you might not be able to put them down 🙂
I am truly sorry that I’m tiring out everyone so with our busy schedule. It should be a lot slower now . . . we hope! Glad you enjoyed the photos! Yes, we too are glad to have been spared of all of the flooding and feel very badly for all those who have lost their homes due to the floods.
Rachelle 🙂
I too am tired by just reading what you guys have been doing! Your photos are beautiful, Rachelle! Glad to hear you were spared all the flooding!
Rachelle, Garden of the Month is another kind of creative honor, probably one overdue for the Siegrist’s garden. It’s looking so gorgeous in this picture of you standing there. Congrats on this, and also on the recent successes with Up Against the Wall Gallery.
Hi Mona,
Yes it is, and I too think the creative juices flow outside of the house as well as inside 🙂
Thanks so much for the compliment and the congrats!
Rachelle 🙂