Basenji Portrait

This is a little painting I finished yesterday at the request of a customer, who noted that I had neglected to paint this beautiful dog.  They are pretty little dogs, and I had actually painted one several years earlier, sold the original, and then due to a computer crash (and poor backup habits), lost the file of the painting.

I didn't go to Portland Saturday Market this weekend due to weather.  However, unless there's a storm or a bad case of flu or something equally calamitous, I'll be there.

For those of you Portlanders who haven't been there in a long time, you need to come down and check it out.  It's a beautiful place these days, right alongside the Willamette River.

By the way, I must comment on something I overheard at the market last weekend:  I heard a man telling his children who had apparently asked how we artists/craftspeople managed to be able to sell at the market.  The man replied that one only had to pay a fee, and voila, one had a market business!  Well, obviously, that's not at all true.

Each and every artist/craftsperson at the market must go through a rigorous jurying process before we are allowed to sell there.  And we must adhere to strict quality standards throughout our time at the market, too. Each of us there creates his/her own work, from start to finish, and we, as the creators of such art work, must for the most part be present to show and sell it.

The Portland Saturday Market is comprised of a few discrete areas:  First, the beautiful new area designed and built for us just a few years ago alongside the Willamette River, on Naito Parkway; this new area also extends back to and through the underside of the Burnside Bridge, too, due to the large number of people making their livelihood by selling their arts/crafts at the market.  The third area is a quite large area across Naito Parkway from the new part of the market and stops at the fountain on First Street, where the Max passes.

There are "tagalong" markets that have formed all around and even adjacent to Portland Saturday market who, when asked, most often say they are also "Portland Saturday Market."  They are not, and much of their items for sale are not made by them, and if they are made by them, do not adhere to the market's strict quality requirements, and many of their items are imported from other countries.

It's amazing the number of people who come into my booth and ask me where I buy my prints, paintings, who, despite the presence of my name on each and every painting, and the sign in my booth showing me working on a painting, don't understand that I paint for a living and that I love what I do more than anything.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox for now and head back out to the studio to work on another painting.