2014 in Review
By Wes Siegrist
Wow, where did it go? We’re fortunate that we can relive our lives and that you can share in them vicariously with us via this blog, our newsletters and Facebook. It only heightens the joy in counting our blessings! While the year was filled with so much more fun with family and friends we’d like to emphasize what happened with our business and wish to again say thanks for all who help us live our dream!
THE ART: You may have noticed we spent a lot of time painting this past year? We had a New Year’s resolution to both paint and play more and managed to do both. Yes, with us, even the painting process is mostly “play” and we’re blessed to have a career we LOVE to do! Between us we painted 93 paintings in 2014 with five of them being Tandem Treasures. We offered these joint paintings for the first time in 2014 and they were all snatched up immediately off the Internet and our newsletters. While we’ve done paintings together in the past they have been limited to commissions or cases where one of us did a minor contribution to a work. (Both of us always sign these paintings) You purchased 40 of our brand new paintings this past year and set records for sales over the summer months!
THE SHOWS: Our paintings were featured in 27 different exhibitions this year as well as several galleries. Many of the shows had subsequent tour venues so Siegrist paintings went all over the USA. We so enjoyed returning to our regular exhibits: SEWE, NatureWorks, Waterfowl Festival and the Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival. Each of these had sales exceeding 2013 and all found new collectors joining our family! We also had great fun at the annual exhibition of the Society of Animal Artists premiere at the Wildlife Experience in Denver, CO. Spending time with peers and collectors at these “in person” venues is always a treat.
THE TOUR: Historic in proportions already, the EXQUISITE MINIATURES Tour grew even more in 2014 adding new museums to the list of upcoming venues. The tour started the year already at the Kenosha Public Museum in Kenosha, WI. It then traveled to the Wildlife Experience in Parker, CO and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, NY before ending the year at the Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat, CO. We plan to attend some of the upcoming venues in 2015 for presentations so keep watching for the dates and times!
AND MORE: Over a dozen awards, including a Best of Show, were bestowed upon our paintings in 2014 and we accepted several invitations to premiere shows. You commissioned portraits of pets, grand kids and more from us including an ongoing series of birds of prey and we anticipate more in 2015. I continued to serve on the Boards of the Miniature Artists of America (MAA) and the Society of Animal Artists (SAA) and am deeply honored with the appointment to serve as a Vice-President for the SAA. While continuing to work as a Webmaster for various groups, I managed to cut down considerably on the time involved and will be stepping down from a few more of these responsibilities next year to spend more time at my easel.
FOR YOU: We added a Collectors’ Corner to the website with special offers and insights for our existing collectors and shared weekly updates on Facebook of paintings in progress on our easels. You have hopefully been enjoying the occasional blogs with business topics and questions that we started in 2014 and will be continuing next year. We have new books on the horizon and a bi-monthly email newsletter starting this February ~ all will have unique photos, stories, news just for you. We plan on 2015 being a BANNER YEAR! It’s our 25th Anniversary of Marriage so we’re planning loads of fun, travel and of course … the best art we can offer you from our easels. Wishing all a joyous New Year!
Under the Magnifying Glass 