This Blog Has A New Home

This is my last post on this Blogger site.  All new material will be posted at www.BeeHappyGraphics.com/blog.  I'm going there now to announce our next two art festivals.  Check it out soon.

We will be at the St. John's River Festival of the Arts the first weekend in May.

For the last three years we've spent this weekend at the Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival, which is a really good festival on Amelia Island.  This year we decided to be adventurous.  This is a new show (in their fourth year) in Sanford, Florida.  It should be along 1st Street (which is SR-46 west of US-17/92) from Myrtle Avenue (three blocks east of US-17 (aka French Avenue)) east to Sanford Avenue, just a couple blocks south of Lake Monroe in historic Sanford.  On Saturday, May 2nd, the hours are from 10 am to 6 pm.  Closing time is 5 pm on Sunday.  They will have over 100 artists and are expecting 20,000 visitors.  We are looking forward to a great show.  For more information, go to their web site (http://stjohnsriverartfest.com/).

The 31st Annual Melbourne Art Festival will be on the fourth full weekend in April, as usual.

This is our first time to this festival, which will be held between the hours of 9 am to 5 pm on both Saturday, April 25, 2015 and Sunday.  The festival will be on New Haven Avenue (which is one block south of Strawbridge Avenue (aka US-192), extending from Livingston Street east to US-1.  They are expecting about 40,000 guests visiting 250 artists.  Besides the art, there will be a 5k run, KidsWorld, workshops, and entertainment.  Check out their web site (http://www.melbournearts.org/) for more information.

The Santa Fe College Spring Arts Festival will be in Gainesville the weekend of April 11th.

This festival, which the promoter, Santa Fe College, claims is "North Central Florida's oldest and finest annual springtime arts celebration"¹ will be along NE 1st Street between 3rd and 6th Avenues.  Saturday's hours are from 9 am to 5:30 pm, but Sunday's times don't start until noon.  According to their web site (http://springartsfestival.com/), there will be more to experience than just art, including a Saturday evening concert.  This will be our first year at this festival (we applied two years ago, but didn't make it off the waiting list).  We are expecting an excellent show.

1.  Although this claim has too many qualifiers to impress me, the numbers speak for themselves.  This year, their 46th, they are expecting 110,000 visitors to 190 exhibitors.

The 37th Annual Central Park Art Festival will be in Winter Haven on the weekend of March 21st.

For our third consecutive year, we will be participating in this festival in central Florida.  It is put on by the Ridge Art Association (http://www.ridgeart.org/), who is expecting about 26 thousand people visiting over ninety artists.  The hours are 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and 10 to 4 on Sunday.  As I remember, it is free to the public.  Come say hello.

We will be at the 35th Annual Festival of the Arts in Deerfield Beach January 24th & 25th.

Although we weren't there last year, this will be our second time at this festival, which will be on the beach (East 21st Ave) south of the fishing pier (North 2nd Street) from 10 am to 5 pm both Saturday and Sunday.  Admission will be free.  They are expecting 60,000 people visiting over 125 artists.  There will be live entertainment.  They advertised that beer and wine will be available, but I didn't see any mention of food (they've got to have food too, right?).  There is parking nearby with shuttles.  For more information, see their web site at http://www.deerfield-beach.com/index.aspx?nid=1182.

We REALLY begin the new year at the Pinecrest Gardens Fine Arts Festival January 10th & 11th.

They are expecting about 15,000 people visiting 65 artists in their 12th annual festival.  Your admission will be free between 10 am and 5 pm on both Saturday and Sunday.  In addition to the artists,  there will be a selection of delicious food, live music and other activities.  You can read more about it at their web site, http://www.pinecrest-fl.gov/index.aspx?page=594.

For those not familiar with the area, The Village of Pinecrest is one of the county's newest municipalities, being incorporated in 1996.  Pinecrest Gardens, the site of the festival on the northwest corner of SW 57th Avenue (Red Road) and 111th Street, was the home of the well-known Parrot Jungle from 1936 until 2002.  This will be our first time participating in this event.

For those of you who are now confused about an earlier post, the Beaux Arts Festival of Art, which will be the weekend after this, will actually be our second festival of the new year.  For the first time ever, we will have two festivals in a row in the Miami area.

"God's Artistry" received praise in November.

On two different weekends in that month, our panoramic image of a sunset in the Everglades was selected for consideration of an award.  On the first weekend in November, it was the Halifax show, where we did win an award in 2013.  Then on the last weekend of the month, it was selected in the Space Coast Art Festival.  Unfortunately, on neither occasion did it actually receive an award.  Shucks!  We would still like to thank the judges for considering us.

The 4th Annual Uptown Art Expo will be in Altamonte Springs the last weekend of March.

This is our second time at this festival in Cranes Roost Park, which is about a block east of I-4 and a block north of East Altamonte Drive.  Admission and parking are free to the public.  There will be 150 artists.  The artists will be available from 10 am to 7 pm on Saturday, March 28, 2015 and from 10 am to 5 pm on Sunday.  Last year they had other entertainment until 9 pm, but I haven't seen anything about that yet this year.  Soon you should be able to get even more information on their website, www.uptownartexpo.com.

We'll be back in Jupiter for ArtiGras Fine Arts Festival on Presidents' weekend.

This will be the festival's 30th anniversary, and our second as participants (due to an oversight on our part, we almost didn't make it).  It will again be in the Abacoa Town Center in Northern Palm Beach County.  On Valentines Day (Saturday, February 14th) and Sunday, it will be open to the public from 10 am to 6 pm.  On Monday it closes an hour earlier (10 am to 5 pm).  Tickets are $10 for all teenagers and beyond, but only $8 if purchased in advance.  They are again expecting 300 artists and 85,000 visitors.   For more information, go to the ArtiGras web site (www.artigras.org).

We start out 2015 with the Beaux Arts Festival of Art in Miami the weekend of January 17th.

Beaux Arts is an active group that promotes interest and funding to The Lowe Art Museum of the University of Miami (in case you were wondering why forms of the word "Art" appeared twice in the name of the festival).  This will be our first time participating in this event (last year we didn't make it off their waiting list), and we are really looking forward to it.  This will be their 64th annual festival, making it South Florida's oldest juried art festival.  It is free to the public, and will take place on Saturday, January 17th and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm on the campus of the University of Miami.  For more information, go to their website, beauxartsmiami.org, and look for the "Festival of Arts" link.  See you there.

The Woodstock Arts & Crafts Festival in Sunrise, Florida is the first weekend in December.

The 34rd Annual Woodstock Arts & Crafts Festival will be from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday, December 6th, and on Sunday from 9 am to 4 pm at Welleby Park in Sunrise, Florida.  Welleby Park is on the south side of 44th Street and the west side of Hiatus Road.  This will be our third time participating in this event.  Our booth number is 306 again this year.  Although the city has done some enhancement and beautification of the park since last year, our booth should still be just a few booths east of the the north entrance on NW 44th Street, facing north.  Admission is $5 or six cans of food.  There will be about 130 exhibitors.  For more information, go to their website at http://www.woodstockartsfest.com/woodstock/home.html.  We hope to see you there.

We will be at The Ramble November 7 - 9, 2014.

Well, actually it's called the "Fall Garden Festival, featuring the 74th Annual Ramble" now.  It is held at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden at 10901 Old Cutler Road in Coral Gables, Florida from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Admission to the festival is included with your regular admission to the Garden, which is $25 for non-members (free for members).  There are different discounts for seniors and children.  See their website (http://www.fairchildgarden.org/) for details and other promotions.  They are expecting between 8 and 10,000 visitors.  Although this is our first year participating here, I believe in the past they've had about 60 exhibitors.  On their website there is a schedule of related events for Saturday and Sunday.

For us, this will be an unprecedented third festival in three weeks, but we will have the pleasure of sleeping in our own beds that weekend.  And although Nancy was born and raised in Miami, the Ramble has been here a lot longer than she has.  Come check it out for yourselves.