Celebration of Fine Art

It’s the time of year that we are all “abuzz” with excitement! We are just weeks away from welcoming you to the 2011 Celebration of Fine Art. As Ann Morrow wrote recently in her “Art and Adventures” blog. . . “The migration is beginning. Tires on trailers are being checked, paintings are being finished, tools are being gathered, lists are being made. Artists from around the country are getting ready for their journey to Scottsdale, Arizona for the 21st Annual Celebration of Fine Art. They will pack up their easels, sculpture stands, pottery wheels, torches, tools of the trade, art work and, in some cases, families to come to Scottsdale for the Celebration of Fine Art. Many have made the journey for years and others will do it for the first time this year.” And, we will be here to welcome them!

Jake and crew are busy preparing for the arrival of the artists. The tents are up and the interior is being set up for the artists to arrive and build out their temporary studios. The office is humming as we check off all of our lists and get the letters and passes ready to mail to our previous collectors. Deadlines are being met each and every day as we prepare for our best year ever!

The most important thing that completes the “celebration” is YOU, our collectors and guests. We can’t wait to welcome you and share in the latest creations of our talented and thoughtful artists! We know that you have many choices of where to go and how to spend your time. We are always grateful when you make the Celebration your destination!

A bit of good news to share. . . We were honored to be selected as the recipient of the Sterling Award for business excellence by our Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce in November. We were grateful for the opportunity to share the Celebration of Fine Art with our fellow business members in our community. The Chamber of Commerce one of it’s sponsors, SRP, created this lovely video about the Celebration that we hope you’ll enjoy.

We’ll be seeing you soon in the big white tents!
Susan and Jake and the whole Celebration of Fine Art Family

Vala’s artistic talent was apparent at an early age. Born in Iceland, she attended life drawing classes at the age of thirteen, graduated from the College of Hamrahlid, further studies at Icelandic College of the Arts and later graduated from The Arts Institute of Bournemouth, England. After numerous sculptural awards abroad, Vala moved to the United States, changed her focus to portraiture and painted portraits for the next seven years.

The Celebration of Fine Art is proud to have Vala as part of our distinguished group of exhibitors. Her quiet strength and attention to detail can be seen in each of her works on display. It is what keeps her collectors coming back year after year.

Vala finds inspiration from her observation of life. Even the most mundane circumstance will spark an idea. The sheer joy on the face as she feels the breeze sweeping across her body and flowing through her garment of Vala’s Spirit of the Senses demonstrates a simple moment of every day life.

In early 2009, Vala was inducted into the National Sculpture Society. The National Sculpture Society is the oldest organization of professional sculptors in the United States. Leading U S sculptors and architects founded the NSS in the 19th century to “spread the knowledge of good sculpture”. Today, NSS continues to encourage excellence in sculpture throughout the United States. The society runs many programs dedicated to encouraging good sculpture, and to educate young artists in the medium.

Vala says, “All we have in life at any given time is the very moment we are living and that moment is of importance. I would like to inspire myself and others to have awareness and appreciation for our life.”

Take a few moments to stop and watch Vala as she works on hew newest pieces at the 2011 Celebration of Fine Art January 15 – March 29, 2011. You’ll enjoy your time with her and be inspired by her vision.

Things are in high gear here at our office in Scottsdale as we are preparing for our 2011 show! We are thrilled with the line up of artists for the upcoming year. Each year we are humbled by the applications that we receive from so many wonderful artists. Please be sure to look at the “Meet the Artists” section to get a sneak preview of the 2011 collection.

We enjoyed a visit to The Grove in Los Angeles, CA with our Scottsdale Convention and Visitor’s Bureau on October 23, where we were joined by artists Robin Branham, Randy Berkeley and Douglas Tharalson. In the pictures above you see Douglas Tharalson talking with a visitor at The Grove. At the top of the page you see Robin sharing her inspiration with a young artist in the making with a sculpture of Randy’s in the back ground. We set up a mini “Celebration” and invited visitors of The Grove to come to Scottsdale and enjoy the Celebration of Fine Art and other great Scottsdale events like all of our classic car auctions that happen in January! It was a fun opportunity to get out and promote what we love to new people. We even met a few people who were from Scottsdale while we were there! It was a beautiful day in LA!

We are happy to share that we have been selected as a finalist for the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce prestigious Sterling Award for business excellence. It is a great honor to be considered as a finalist for this award, so we already feel like a winner. We’ll find out on November 16 who the Sterling Award recipients are in all four catagories. You can visit www.scottsdalechamber.com/sterling to read more about it. We are very proud to represent our incredible team of employees and the great artists who make the Celebration of Fine Art worthy of this consideration.

We look forward to having you join us for our 2011 Event! Mark your calendars for January 15 through March 27, 2011! The artists are hard at work preparing their best pieces for you! See you soon!

It’s not entirely unheard of for an artist or a craftsperson to change direction mid-career and move from one mode of artistic express to another. What’s perhaps most interesting about Whitney is that she not only changed direction; she added a dimension.

Whitney, a native of Rochester, New York for 30 years pursued the fine art of tapestry weaving a two-dimensional medium of color and pattern. When she first came to the Celebration of Fine Art, she found that her weaving loom would take up too much room in her studio and had to be left at home. As these are working studios for the artists, she could not work or demonstrate how she created her gorgeous tapestries.

In 1990, she decided a change was necessary, not only for her aching back but it was time to find a new interest. A weekend artists’ retreat introduced her to painting on gourds. Whitney recalls, “I saw the possibilities in the natural, organic shape of the gourds. The first one I studied, for instance, suggested a woman. She just appeared to me.” Better yet, gourds, paints, brushes and carving tools were portable.

Whitney moved from the two-dimensional world of weaving to the three-dimensional world of the often tall and shapely Zucca gourds she still buys from a grower in southern California.

Finding that she could work out her creative ideas much faster on a gourd than in tapestry weaving, she sold all of her weaving equipment and supplies and moved virtually full time to gourds and started doing more paintings. Whitney says, “The gourds, for me, have always fallen into the decorative arts category. While the paintings cross over from decorative arts into a psychological space, so I tend to be more experimental – more abstract with the paintings.”

Spend a few moments with Whitney at the 2011 Celebration of Fine Art and be inspired by her view of the world. You can meet her from January 15 through March 27, 2011 under the big white tents.