PAINT OUT A POSTIVE SUCCESS

The Artist Alliance completes its inaugaral event, showing a new way to bring art and nature together. Watch for news of our next event, to be announced April first -- no fooling!

When 29 of Florida's premiere landscape artists came together for 6 days at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, they completed 150+ paintings. Two thousand people came to watch...many from outside Alachua County. The Visitors Information Bureau says they talked with people from all over. The artists furiously framed all the work. We hung it all up and opened with a big celebration. Hundreds came to see and buy. Opening night we totalled over $11,000. in sales. Two more days of selling followed bringing the grand total to more than $25,000. Ten days from start to finish...that's a paint out.

The artists, who set their own retail prices, will receive 70% of their sales. The other 30% will be equally split between the Alliance and Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. Kanapaha also benefitted from increased attendance, bringing their benefit from the event to over $12,000. We will post exact totals when we have those figures.

One thing we know for certain. Art in this region is now different...what was opened up is the magical connection between artist and spectator...offering what was missing...the ability to watch the process...to be part of the experience. Add to that the blend of nature and art and Voila!

A very whole sensory experience becomes a vehicle to talk about this beautiful region. We have all benefited greatly from this one experience...thank you to all who took part. The feedback we are receiving is overwhelming. In the end the painters were right. They said, "If you do this, it will be a huge success." Thank you to Linda Blondheim. Her insight, perseverance and connections to www.PleinAirFlorida.org really were the catalyst for this event. Please visit their website for additional paint out events.

Thank you to our sponsors who made the paint out possible. Thank you to the artists who gave it life...thank you to the spectators and the buyers who embraced it made it so successful.

Check our site for the next Alliance project which will be revealed April 1st. Its another interactive first for our area. We hope you will take part.That's all for now.

Annie Pais
Director Artists
Alliance of North Florida