Dancing Delight

Deer Shaman after an Osage Petroglyph
Mixed media on paper by Phillip Hoyle

Jim dropped me off in Colorado Springs at the space where I was going to hang a show. I’d brought over twenty paintings to display and knew I was going to have to work fast and furious to get them hung. I’d been at it for over three hours with one short break and was pleased to have only one piece left to hang. I was very tired and the painting was just a little too large for comfort since the only place left to hang anything was very high, like many steps up a ladder, and a long lean off to the front and left. I wasn’t looking forward to the stretch and hoped I’d be able to get it in place without dropping it or scratching the frame. I was studying the challenge when a woman came in the front door.

“I stopped by to see the art,” she announced.

“So pleased you did. I’m the artist.”

When she introduced herself I realized she had purchased several of my paintings. I had sent her thank you notes. We made a little small talk while she quickly looked over the paintings and asked me about one that most attracted her. We talked a bit more. “It’s different from your others,” she commented. I agreed.

The painting featured a design I had worked with before but had never displayed: a dancing shaman in a headdress. This painting featured a bright red accent in the center and a border of white paint that when it ran elicited a rather esoteric feeling, at least in me.

“I want to take it.”

I called for Marie, the owner, who happily greeted the buyer and rang up the sale.

I wrapped the painting in paper. The customer left pleased. The shop owner was also pleased at the sale. I felt pretty sure the nail had not even cooled from being pounded in the wall just before the sale.

As my customer (and fan?) left I told her I was so pleased because the sale solved what I was going to do with the final painting I needed to hang. We laughed. I thanked her again.

Elk Shaman after a Ute petroglyph
Mixed media by Phillip Hoyle

I was so pleased when I got the show hung and even more when a couple of months later Marie called me to tell me she'd sold three more of my paintings--two to the same customer and one to a young friend of hers. They were quite happy, as was Marie, as was I.

In the past month I have been working again with the white borders and just finished a set of six paintings. They’re not yet framed, but I suspect within a few months they’ll be displayed at Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. Hope you’ll stop by!

Denver, 2014