Art in the Alley Party

Hi there!  If you have been a regular visitor to The 2 Seasons, then you know that I have been taking art classes for a year.  You can see my latest creation here.

Lucky for me, my art teacher lives just two doors down, and we share a great alley behind our townhouses that we use for access to our garages.  The alley has a long wooden fence, and so, I came up with the idea to have an “Art in the Alley” party.

 

 

We invited her 12 students to bring their favorite works of art to display along with a bottle of wine and an hor d’oeuvre.  They all brought guests, and we also invited neighbors.

 

Since this was an alley party, we knew that the food and drinks would have to be set up outside.  We have a pretty cool garage, and we used the “work bench” for the bar.  All of the wine glasses and serving dishes were plastic to prevent a broken glass situation.  I put ice in the enamelware bucket and used it to keep the white wines cool.

 

I had just returned home from France where I visited Monet’s Giverny one day.  I had the foresight to bring home napkins that used some of his paintings as their theme.

 

We put the food on a long folding table.  I used a painters’ drop cloth for the table cloth, and the centerpiece was various artsy items.

 

The goal was to create a still-life using art items.  My art teacher (Maryann) has beautiful antiques and silver.  She keeps some of her paint brushes in a great silver coffee pot which was perfect.  We used a little plate stand to support an adorable sketch pad.

 

We added a stack of art books and……

 

…..the rustic colored pencils I bought in Argentina.

 

I had another set of Monet napkins, too.

 

I placed a white wooden screen behind the table to create an optical illusion.  We all still knew it was a garage, but the screen just sort of suggested it might be something else.  Ha, ha!!!!  You can see our bikes hanging but thankfully, three of them were in the shop that day.

 

We opened the double doors that lead to the mudroom so that our guests knew they could wander into the courtyard if they wanted.

 

The courtyard was wearing its fall look and was very welcoming.

 

 

We also set portable speakers around.  We used Pandora to provide jazz to help set the mood.

 

Now, come along and take a peak at our wooden fence/turned gallery wall.

 

 

(These two paintings were my two entries.  The painting on the bottom was my first painting ever, and the nest of eggs was my second ).

 

This painting is huge and not yet finished.

 

 

Everyone had a great time and thought the Art in the Alley party was a fun idea.  It helped that the weather was perfect.  We are already thinking about next year’s party.  We want to include more artists and their guests.

 

Take care.

Linking to