ArtFest Over & We're Almost to the End of the Season

ArtFest 2011 went off without a hitch last weekend. We had some wonderful artists, and sold a lot of plants at our end of season sale. By popular acclaim, Our Best of Show winners were Tillery & Regina Dingler of Spirit Ware. They received a $100 cash prize. (Tillery pictured below with presenter, Belinda East)

Tillery Dingler & Belinda East

Richard Elvis

Richard Elvis was awarded 2nd for his mirror and glass art, receiving a $50 cash prize.

Some of our favorite pictures--these flowers were part of Santa Fe artist Gilbert Candelaria's colorful and wildly creative transformation of "mundane objects into art."

Vivian Hartman & Jessica deGruyder taking a break from painting henna designs, and displaying unique jewelry pieces featuring delicate bits of insects encased in resin and plastic.

A chance discovery led Tom Hubbert to explore an unusual media in his painting--asphalt.

Joyce McKenstry was back this year with her fine jewelry.

Marge Larson's oils were both accomplished and interesting--a wide range of subjects too.

 Vicki Hudson of Nature's Way Jewelry made the most amazing pieces working with shells, fossils, wood and other natural materials--and each set beautifully boxed.

We had several demonstrations--Laurie Lange has been studying our native bees and their habitats. (pictured)
Susana Andrews spent time weaving, and Phoenix Simpson painted in water color. 
Fest goers were entertained by the expert fingering of Banjo Bob on Saturday, and by Joyce and Lew Sherrod of "Mis' Behavin' on Sunday. These musicians were really great--I kept overhearing listeners remarking at how much they enjoyed them, especially Joyce's vocals.

And last but not least--a big thank you to Pinkie's Catering for making sure we had food and drink. Pinkies Country Cafe is a great place to run in for coffee and scones, or a quick sandwich and more.

Mountain Gardens last day will be on August 28th. We'll be selling raffle tickets until then--prizes include a Chakra Cleansing with Robert Standing Eagle Marshall, a handpainted basket gourd, a fused glass necklace donated by artist Theresa Dunfree, a reading by Jennifer Lee, and a gift certificate from Pinkie's. The raffle benefits one of our artists from last year who lost her home, studio and art materials in a fire.

We'll continue our sale until the 28th. All trees and shrubs 25% off. Buy one herbaceous perennial and get the second (and others of same cultivar) at half off. Remaining 4 inch annuals, herbs, and veggies--50 cents each.

 We hope everyone has a great fall, winter and spring. We'll see you in April, the third and fourth weekend. Till then, we'll keep posting to the blog whenever something interesting comes up.