Where on earth does time fly to. It’s already been 2 weeks since getting back from Dallas. I’ve been immersed in studio work and fighting a cold, barely taking time to turn on my computer.

Several people mentioned they were curious to see the paintings which sold the night of my Opening Reception on February 12th at Alan Barnes Fine Art. Here are a few of them.

It seemed the most desirable pieces were the ones used for the front, back and inside covers of my  Exhibition Catalog

Yellow Green Colorscape, 20" x 20" USD $2,250.

Orange / Green Colorscape, 8" x 8" USD $800.

Blue / Green Colorscape, 12" x 12" USD $950.

Blue / Violet Colorscape, 20" x 16" USD $1,950

Blue / Green Colorscape, 9" x 7" USD $790.

Last Thursday evening, February 12th, was the Opening of my Solo Exhibition called “Vistas” at Alan Barnes Fine Art in Dallas, Texas.  Even though a cold storm had blown through the day before, the day of my reception was gloriously warm and a sunny 75 degrees. It felt like a good omen to me.

What a memorable night it was. Alan Barnes and his assistant Karin put on an amazing event with catered appetizers, drinks and champagne. They even hired a valet to park cars. - Definitely first class. In spite of these uncertain times 9 paintings were sold, which is an excellent beginning to another month of the exhibition. My show will be up until March 12, 2009.

About 150 people came including Brendan Higgins of NBC. After interviewing me briefly, Brendan graciously introduced me and I was asked to say a few words about my work. He also publicly thanked Christine & Eric Brauss and me for our support of the North Dallas Kidney Foundation.

Brendan Higgins, NBC

Higgins, KF Pres.,Brauss, me, Barnes

It was such fun to see several old friends and collectors again and I made a lot of new friends too. The biggest surprise of the night was that Ariane Goodwin of SmARTIST flew down from Massachusetts. We’d only ever talked on-line and by phone through my participation as a panelist / presenter. I was stunned that she took the time out of her unbelievably busy schedule to come to my Opening to meet me face to face and see my work. WOW !! What an honor.

Ariane Goodwin

All in all a great party that went on until 1:00 am !!

My new re-designed website was launched yesterday. I just love the clean fresh look. The navigation bar is now laid out  to make it much easier to find what you’re looking for.

Patricia Velte my web designer and I are still tweaking a tiny bit. There are  a few links that aren’t working and a page that’s still being worked on. Also this Blog page  needs to be re-designed. But overall it’s 98 % done. Check it out.

I’m heading out to Texas Wednesday morning for my Champagne Opening in Dallas on Thursday night at  Alan Barnes Fine Art.  Dallas’ NBC 5 personality Brendan Higgins will be there to interview me so I think I’ll need an extra glass of bubbly to make it through the evening for sure.

The Opening is being generously hosted by local philanthropists Eric and Christine Brauss with a portion of the sales being donated to the Kidney Foundation, Renal Camp for Kids. Friday evening, my husband Jim and I have been invited to join Mr & Mrs Brauss along with gallery director Alan Barnes and his wife Belinda for a Post Opening dinner.

It’s going to be an action-packed few days and I’m very excited. We’ll be flying home on Saturday. and  I’ll post some photos as soon as I can.

Feedback on my website was one of the wonderful things that came to me as a result of my participation as a panelist  in the SmARTist Telesummit. First off, many people emailed to let me know the “Join My List” link isn’t working. Aha !!!! No wonder I wasn’t getting any response from people wanting to be on my mailing list. My apologies to those of you who have been frustrated by this bad link.

Secretly, I’m a little bit of a techie. SmARTist, ArtBiz and various Blogs which have been writing about me recently have resulted in a huge spike in traffic to my website. I’ve been studying the usage patterns of guests entering my site on Google Analytics. This has given me a really clear snapshot of what people generally find interesting and what they’re ignoring. Pretty valuable stuff.

This week, my studio is undergoing a little renovation with overhead lighting being changed for more energy efficiency. I’m doing the same thing at my house. It’s been a bit hard to get any painting in, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to re-design and update my website. I’m going for a fresh, clean look and less confusing navigation.

Stay tuned. It should be up and running within a week or so.