This will be our 12th annual Holiday Show and our third year with The Summit who graciously makes this possible. About one half of the store that was Charming Charlie will be ours for the Mountain Brook Art Association’s annual Holiday Art & Gift Show, and it is BEAUTIFUL. We could not have dreamed of a better location. Located between Soft Surroundings and the very popular Chuy’s, we will share the space with a couple of businesses and Santa. Overall the space will be called The North Pole!
This year we will have even more gift items, all made by our talented artists who come from around the entire metro area. All gift items are hand-painted or reproductions of the artists’ own paintings. We will have lots of ornaments, miniature paintings, cards, magnets, coasters, even scarves. We will have an incredible variety of paintings in all sizes and price ranges to fit every budget, from $10 to $1000. Each sale supports a LOCAL artist, and a portion of all sales will go to this year’s local charity, Studio by the Tracks, a gallery and working studio in Irondale for artists with autism spectrum disorders.
Dec 1 – 22 open daily. Mon-Thurs 11-6, Friday & Sat 11-8, Sunday 12-6. Our popular evening reception will be back December 3rd, from 6-8pm.
A fun feature of the show are the daily painting demonstrations in the window of the store. Customers are welcome to sit a spell and enjoy. Among the popular artists exhibiting will be Joan Curtis, Anita Bice, Toby Klein, Lynn Briggs, Michael Davis, Janet Sanders, Mary Mellen, Kendall Boggs, Kat Pilleteri.
We are very excited to have the extraordinary Rollina with us again to create 20 minute charcoal portraits directly from the subject. She does not work from photos as she much prefers to work with the person right in front of her, even if it is a wiggly child… or two. Dates and times for appearance for Rollina and other demo artists will be posted to our Facebook page and website.
Here is a little bit about MJ, who I happen to call a friend: MJ loves to create. The process of creating is just as interesting as the artwork itself and just as revealing as its outcome. When it comes to her artwork, no matter what medium she is working in, her inspiration comes from her heart, head, eyes and then to her hand. She does not use projectors, light boxes, only what her eyes to hand can convert to an image. The age we live in you can create anything in digital form. That is great, and some day she says she will try it, but for now she likes the look of a little human imperfection. She feels artwork should not be a competition, but a true view of what the artist is feeling at that moment. Her paintings are her bio, and isn’t that what you really want to see and know about ……..Check out her website at 
Have fun getting to know your fellow artists! Even if you attended the daytime meeting last Spring this will be a different format than what we had before. We will continue to explore how you can make a best friend in 5 minutes and how that will help you in your art career. Refreshments will be served. Come out and meet new artists, share your experiences, successes and not so great learning experiences. We will all grow at this meeting, we will all be leaving as friends. This is the opportunity to connect with that artist you admire or that emerging artist that needs a little help and you can mentor. ART is meant to be shared not only with our customers but with each other.
