Sacre Bleu! It’s Bastille Day Again…

And the Huffingtons are ready to throw a fete. With our usual frantic buzz of activity, we have been cataloguing, photographing, framing and pondering our hanging strategy for the gallery’s most fun event of the year.

Laura Shubert, La Fete, 30 x 40, acrylic on canvas

We’re not quite sure why this event garners such a devoted and happy crowd – we chalk it up to being held in the middle of the week, in the middle of July, in the middle of the summer…and just when you think the whole world is on vacation, it turns out that lots of people are around and ready to play.

Last year, we all wore our French espadrilles that Madame brought us from Provence…

We always have Jaques (aka Don, his real name) on hand to belt out the French classics and what a great job he does. We can promise plenty of nice wine, delicious nibbles and, of course, some drop dead new art from our gallery French and American artists.

On Madame’s last trip to Paris, she called me to excitedly tell me about some new paintings she had found. She sent me some photos but I couldn’t really appreciate them until I saw them in person.

These small watercolors by Fanch Lel are deceptively simple but a closer look reveals a real talent by the artist to capture the essence of all things French.

Fanch Lel, Moutons en baie du Mont St. Michel, 5 x 7, oil on board

We love his graceful treatment and skilled hand…but especially love the sweet and charming ambiance of these. They are painted on plain and simple board and are very small, but we love the way they gussied up in their new ornate and chunky frames.

Fanch Lel, Les Quais de Quimper, 5 x 7, oil on board

Fench Lel, Maree Basse, 7 x 5, oil on board

And that’s what makes the art business so pleasurable. The art doesn’t need to have any special heritage, nobility or accolades (although don’t get us wrong, that doesn’t hurt!) to make it special and meaningful. We always go by what our heart says and this time it was an easy decision.

And, our fete doesn’t just celebrate our French artists. Many of our wonderful gallery artists have caught the bug and have been bitten by that certain “je ne sais quoi” – Nancy Franke comes to mind with her spontaneous and deft use of color, shape and light. We adore this one that portrays beautiful Isle sur la Sorgue in Provence.

Nancy Franke, Dimanche a Ile, 16 x 16, oil on canvas

(By the way, we’re delighted to announce that Nancy is leading not one but two painting trips to Provence this fall. We can only imagine what fun the artists will have with this spunky, lively and talented teacher.)

Also joining us for our fete is artist extraordinaire and master of brushwork, Bill Davidson and we are so thrilled to have his pieces gracing the walls.

Bill Davidson, Provence Colors, 18 x 24, oil on linen

We welcome guest artist Lesley Powell to the gallery. We fell in love with her poker-faced and ever-so-French waiters who look like they could be rolling their eyes as their customers struggle with their bad French.

Lesley Powell, Maitre D’, oil on canvas, 20 x 16

And, we can’t get enough of Laura Shubert's light-drenched French exteriors and interiors. You can just about feel the warm sun and smell the lavender when you study her work.

Laura Shubert, Chandelier and Stairs, 36 x 36, acrylic on canvas

Laura Shubert, French Facade, 36 x 36, acrylic on canvas

So, if you’re in town, don your beret and slip on your espadrilles and stop by the gallery for a French fix: Thursday, July 14^th from 6-8 p.m. Bonne Fete!

Ta ta. See you Thursday!

HH

Paris in Sepia

We love it when people reinvent themselves and come up with things that, later in life, they are passionate about. That’s probably because at one time or other, we have all done that at the gallery. In fact, between us we have worn so many hats in our collective professional lives that it would make your head spin! We’ve had careers in marketing, advertising, real estate, public relations, food service (remember waitressing your way through college?), college admissions, teaching (English, French, theatre and even skiing!), flight attending, retail, interior design, and much much more. And that’s without even including Sam Jones, our real renaissance lady, whose resume would take up five pages!

One of our favorite clients, who not only has collected art from us over the years but also been to Provence with one of our groups, recently reinvented herself and has become passionate about photography. She is so excited about this new found passion and so charged by the enthusiasm of those who’ve viewed her work that it has given her a whole new lease on life, following a few tough years with persnickety health issues and a variety of interesting careers.

We first met April Dilbeck when we were babies in the art gallery business and selling out of Scotts, the famous flea market located near the airport. April had the booth next to ours, and she featured beautiful European antiques. We instantly bonded and became friends and April went on to becoming a cherished friend and client, who accompanied us on one of our first tours of Provence, a few years ago.

Knowing that we are all Francophiles here at the gallery, and thinking we could suggest a venue for some of her newest photographs, April sent us some examples of her recent work on Paris, entitled “Paris in sepia,” and politely asked for advice.

It so happens that she took these Paris photos following one of our trips to Provence, when she was staying at a quaint little hotel on the Left Bank, and spent much of her time dodging rain storms. Luckily, those dramatic storms became the backdrop for her photography, and that is one of the reasons her work is so powerfully luminous.

We loved the images and are thrilled to introduce a friend, and talented artist, April Dilbeck, who will be a guest artist for our Bastille Day Show on July 14^th. We hope that you will be equally drawn to April’s beautiful photographs of Paris and join us for a fun filled evening of wine, cheese, music and art … one of our favorite shows of the year.

We hope you’ll join us next week as we toast our French artists, and our not-so-French American artists, who have all been bitten by the French bug, and whose work will be gracing our gallery walls starting on Bastille Day, July 14th, 2011.

And we hope you’ll join us in welcoming April Dilbeck as a talented guest artist for this fun show.

A bientot!

HH

Huffingtons Toast the Storming of the Bastille (and all things French…)

Bastille Day in Paris

By now, you know that one of our favorite shows to curate and hang is our little salute to the bleu, blanc and rouge. July 14 always rolls around quickly, and we all look forward to hanging the gallery with new works from our talented and lovely French artists (This year, we had invited some of our American artists to participate, too, so we had a gallery-full of truly extraordinary work.)

As with any show, and despite all our determined preparations, it always comes down to the last wire, and this one was no exception. In the nick of time, we received, catalogued, framed, and hung last minute arrivals by Ewa Rzeznik (see our blog from last week that tackles that little adventure: Hop to it, Huffingtons). With an hour to go, we were still frantically re-tagging a few pieces, re-hanging a couple of groupings, and answering the phone, which was merrily ringing off the hook. But, we all had the pre-party adrenaline going, so it was fun and excitingly hectic.

(On a serious note: we have to say we always feel like proud parents when the gallery is hung with a new exhibit. It takes all of us to make a show come together, and we usually have all hands on deck (in jeans and flats) in the frantic days leading up to the opening. We think long and hard about our hanging strategy and when we get that feeling that each painting is making another sing, we are all satisfied and feel as if the job has been done to the best of our ability. The French have a great term for this that Ann taught us and it’s perfect: l’un fait l’autre chanter – “one makes the other sing.” Isn’t that lovely? It’s our little credo here at the gallery. And yes, we all have the jitters right before the door opens.)

Just before the doors officially opened, we were still scurrying around taking care of last-minute details:

- Linda tidied and fluffed the gallery and gave us the perfect touch of summer style with her effortless addition of just-picked daisies from our little garden.

- A last-minute catering snafu was also gracefully and graciously handled by Linda (who credits her years as a flight attendant for her cool-under-pressure attitude – she had us giggling at the last minute with stories from 32,000 feet)

- We welcomed Jacques the Accordionist (okay, he’s really Don, but Jacques is perfect for this blog and he does have a nice French air about him) and got him situated for a night of rousing French tunes.

- our always calm, cool and collected bartender, Demaris, uncorked wine and got ready for the masses (if only she knew at that point how crazy the night would become…)

Ready to pour…

- we slipped on our cute espadrilles that Ann brought us from Provence.

Meg, Ann, & Linda – fresh & festive in their summer whites.

Finally, at 5:45 (a few minutes ahead of schedule), we opened our little blue door and, voila, we had a party going.

And, sacre bleu, what a party it was! By 6:00, we already had a gallery-full of friends, art-lovers and Francophiles and it just kept getting busier and busier as the evening wore on. (If our guests seem to be “gently glowing,” it’s because our little air-conditioner has a hard time keeping up when temps outside are in the 90s and the gallery is chock-a-block with bodies.)

But no-one seemed to mind and the fete took on a fun life of its own. It was fun chatting about the art and we were so happy to welcome a few of our artists: Nancy Franke was there along with Doug Foltz and adorable Melissa Payne Baker. And, Lorraine Christie, whose alluring paintings of Parisian-inspired street scenes always have fans swooning, popped by too.

Lorraine Christie, L’rrivee de l’amour

Nancy Franke, Provencal Patterns

Click here to see a glimpse of what all the fun was about!

At the end of the night – with every bottle of wine consumed; every crumb of food happily devoured; Edith Piaf love songs running through our heads; and some little jewels of paintings headed to their new maisons – we were exhausted but happy that our tribute to all things French had truly been un bon fete.

via

A bientot! We're already looking forward to Bastille Day 2011!

Tata!

HH

Hop to it, Huffingtons!

Like every business that we’ve ever been involved with, this one comes with its share of glam and the not-so-glam. Of course, we mostly dwell on the glam parts, which are so plentiful and fun that they far outweigh the other. But there are times when the not-so-glam takes over, when some of us adopt nicknames like “Linderalla” and “Schleperella,” and others among us come nail bitingly close to throwing in the towel and calling it a day. And then usually something good happens.

Yesterday was one of those days.

We’ve been merrily preparing for one of our most fun and popular shows, our annual “Bastille Day” bash, which features new works from some of our wonderful French artists, as well as some French inspired work by other artists. The problem was that we were missing seven important paintings for the show from one of our key players, Ewa Rzeznik.

We knew they’d been shipped in a big box from France three weeks ago, and when they didn’t arrive as expected, we exchanged several frantic phone calls with Ewa to try to find them. The final tracking information from the shipper’s website was none too reassuring: “Delivered to destination,” it stated, with no further explanation. Imagine trying to track down a package with the French national post office! And to make matters worse, imagine doing this on Bastille Day!

Here’s how our not-so-glam day evolved:

11:45 – Frantic phone call to Ewa: Still no package, no phone numbers to call, no paintings, and our phone is ringing off the hook with festive followers asking us about tonight’s show.

12:00 – More frantic phone calls, to local post offices.

12:15 – A live person answers the phone at the Sandy Springs post office!! After being on hold for a surprisingly short time, she says, “yes, we’ve got your package – it’s been here since July 3^rd. We were just about to send it back to France.”

12:16 – No time to question how this could have happened, to tell her we never got a notice or to wonder why it was there. No time to ask any questions or point any fingers. Meg jumps in her car and dashes off to the post office, ID in hand.

1:15 – Meg returns with the package and we tear it apart, spilling Styrofoam peanuts all over the floor, while oohing and aahing with relief and excitement that all seven paintings have arrived safely and are as beautiful as expected.

1:30 – We quickly sweep up the front rooms before spreading peanuts all over the gallery.

2:00 – We photograph, measure, and inventory all the paintings.

3:00 – The paintings are all odd French sizes so we don’t have any frames for them. But we do manage to squeeze one painting into a gorgeous existing frame.

3:30 – We print labels and completely rehang the show to accommodate the new work. In our frantic hurry, we forget to tell Ewa that her paintings have arrived!

4:00 – We add a page to the website for Ewa’s new work, so thankful that after all these months, we can actually have something on her page that is not sold!

Ann & Meg unpacking Ewa Rzeznik’s new work. 1 down, 7 to go!

4:30 – We publish the website and send out an email to some of Ewa’s fan club, announcing the new paintings and telling them to come to our show which starts in … yeeks … 90 minutes!

4:45 – Phone rings. It’s Ewa. “You got the paintings!” she exclaims, as we overhear fireworks popping in the distance from her local Bastille Day celebration.

We assure her that they finally arrived, just in the nick of time, and she thanks us for getting them up on the website so fast. She marvels at the irony of international air travel and tells us that when she left for her Bastille Day celebration, her paintings were lost. When she returned, they were found and up on our website!

5:00 – Run home. Change clothes. Powder nose. Feed kids. Run back to Gallery.

6:00 – As the first of many festive followers arrive at our party, Meg and I turn to each other, clink our glasses and say, Happy Bastille Day! We’re back in the glam.

~~~~

Here’s a peek at Ewa’s new work:

Fishing Together

Hand in Hand with Our Best Friend

My Best Helper

They’re Here Somewhere

Wait Up!

We’re Flying!

On a Mission With Our Best Friend

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We hope you all enjoyed our Bastille Day celebration last night! It was so wonderful to see so many of you out and about, supporting us and commemorating the storming of the Bastille.

Tata!

HH

Huffingtons in Espadrilles

One of our favorite shows to curate and hang is our annual Bastille Day show. Being the Francophiles we are, we’ll take any opportunity to indulge in anything French - especially art. We’re lucky to work with a number of wonderfully talented and diverse French artists and we love this opportunity to let their work shine at the gallery.

We always strive to show a wide range of style, medium and price, and this exhibit is no exception. We have works on paper, panel, and canvas; abstract and representational; watercolors, acrylics, and oil; and a nice assortment of prices. In fact, we’re coining a French phrase: “Raport, Qualite, Prix” to sum up the terrific value of much of this work.

Ann hard at work perfecting the lighting (behind her you can see a sneak peek of some of the new work for the show).

So, we’ve hung the gallery with our French treasures, ordered some light and delicious rouge and blanc for sipping, and arranged for some lovely little French inspired nibbles, this year from a local restaurant, Anis (funnily enough, it was at Anis five years ago this summer that Ann and I shared a bottle of rouge over lunch and at the end of the afternoon, became business partners).

Anis

We’ve reserved our favorite (and slightly cheeky) accordion player, and will open our little blue door and let the fete begin. (In true Atlanta style, it is usually swelteringly hot and humid for this event and we encourage our attendees to dress coolly since our little air-conditioner has a hard time fighting the temps.)

To add to the ambiance, we Huffingtons will be sporting our new obsession: French espadrilles, hand-picked by Ann for each of us.

We can only imagine the fun she had tracking these down at little village markets – definitely a case of “someone’s gotta do it.” We had to give our cute footwear a trial run as we hung the show and everyone’s giving a big thumbs up. They wear like little slippers and, of course, we love the ever-so-French air they give us all.

Who would have thought that our new espadrilles would perfectly match the new work we’ll be featuring in the show?

Ann spent quite a bit of time figuring out who would get which espadrille. She wisely chose a wonderful taupe-y and neutral pair for Linda and me; elegant red, cream and army green stripes for herself; snappy white and blue for Sam; white for Sarah; and multi-colored stripes for Rachel. We love how our new shoes fit our personalities perfectly, and we’re pretty sure they will be come the footwear de rigueur around the gallery for the rest of the summer.

Ann’s selections for us: (L-R) Sam, Meg, Sarah, Rachel, Ann, Linda.

Meg, Ann, & Linda…

…and their espadrilles!

So, that’s what we’ll be doing this coming Wednesday, July 14^th. We’re celebrating the storming of the Bastille – and all things French – and if you’re local, we hope you’ll stop by to say bon soir.

Tata!

M.