An Evening Art Show

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to present a show of my artwork at a ladies benevolent association evening meeting at my church. The president of the association contacted me and asked if I would bring the work I had done while in lockdown. She remarked that she was following my Instagram account the whole time we were down, and that the colorful works I kept posting helped her through it all.

How could I say anything other than "yes"?

©Dora Sislian Themelis

©Dora Sislian Themelis

Without much time to properly matte the works on paper I decided to quickly gang up and mount the smaller gouache and watercolors onto foam core boards to make use of vertical space. Some oils were framed, others not framed, others were small panels that I had in small photo holders.

©Dora Sislian Themelis

I used a few of my travel easels to hold the larger oil paintings, and propped some against the wall. The president is a teacher and managed to borrow quite a few student table easels which helped! I also made use of the legs of the easels and the floor.

©Dora Sislian Themelis

The ladies of the association arrived before I did. I was happy to hear and see them enjoying the show of my work, discussing the scenes, the colors. I knew some of the members, who were surprised to learn I am an artist!

©Dora Sislian Themelis

So this was my first outing with a crowd of people since all the craziness. It felt strange and comfortable at the same time. I'm so used to having my head down in my art space, painting away in my own little world.

When I was asked to speak, I explained that when the lockdown happened, expectedly for two weeks to stop the spread, I had no problem with it. It's what I do anyway, what's two weeks? 

When two weeks turned into two months, now two years later, I just kept painting. 

This show was the result of that amazing time spent in the studio at work, and I just keep on painting.