Huffingtons Throw a Party

Last Friday night we threw a little fete at the gallery and what a party it turned out to be. It was technically the opening of “A Grand Affair” (a nice little show featuring paintings all under $1,000.00) but the evening turned out to be a festive and fun party.

We’re chalking the charged atmosphere in the gallery up to cabin fever – or what’s left of it around here. We poor Atlantans took a walloping about ten days ago: a lethal combination of snow quickly followed by freezing rain. The result were shocking: literally impassable and icy roads and a general shut down all over town.

And yes, we hear it all the time from Northerners and Midwesterners and yes, you’re all correct: we don’t know how to drive in those kind of conditions, which is exactly why we are happy living in our temperate and above-freezing climate!

Two of us crept and crawled our way to the gallery on day four of the Deep Freeze and slid into the gallery. UPS and FedEx deliveries were delayed by days and our poor artists were frantic trying to make sure their art arrived in time.

Shipments of paintings were delayed because of the weather…and then they all arrived at the same time!

With packages and boxes arriving in dribs and drabs, it was a hard show to hang. We ran out of our indispensible wall rods and hooks and had to wait for them to arrive, which meant we couldn’t hang. By Thursday, we were still a mess and quite honestly, we felt the show didn’t come together perfectly until Friday morning when we all got that “Aha!” feeling and we were confident the walls were looking their best.

Smiles from Linda as she unpacks boxes

Anyway, after a solid five days and nights of being housebound, our friends and clients turned out in droves to take a peek at A Grand Affair.

Just to make it even more fun, we had our very favorite band, Smokey's Farmland Band, strumming their guitars, mandolins, and violins.
Smokey’s Farmland Band (sometimes they’re a trio and sometime they’re a fivesome - we had the trio) is made up of adorable and friendly musicians and they added the perfect backdrop at the gallery.

Our sweet bartender sadly couldn’t make it at the last minute, so one of our Huffingtons took charge along with two dear friends and beautifully handled the masses at the bar. The lines for the vino wound around the gallery but everyone was patient and had a great sense of humor. Our table of pretty food lasted no more than half an hour.

So, our guests feasted their eyes and stomachs and washed it all down with a nice little French red and white and we’re pretty sure a good time was had by all.

We’ve got all the party pix on our Facebook page, so if you’re not a Friend, please become one so you can view the fun photos.( All party pix are courtesy of our charming English photographer, Philip Shone)

Just so you know, we do take plenty of time planning our calendars around these thrice or quarterly openings. They’re a great time to visit with our lovely clients and shine the spotlight on our artists. Coming up with the titles is half the fun and some of our favorites over the years have included: Wet Paint, Re-Arranging Reality, Luminosity and Juicy.

And, as this week rolled around, we were already hard at work planning our next event. You’re going to love this one: Blonde Bombshells, opening on Friday March 18^th.

Stay tuned!

Melissa Payne Baker (undoubtedly one of the Blonde Bombshells in the March 18th show, found us this perfect bottle of wine. Look closely at the title!)

(sort of hard to read but this wine is called “The Blonde Bombshell!” Perfect for our next opening…)

Ta ta!