Hello,

During the past several months I have been busy working on the "business" side of my art. This has included much research into galleries, trade journals, the Internet (my websites), various exhibition opportunities, and everything else that does not include actual painting. In an effort to get me back to the easel, I would like to announce that my wife, Jennifer, will be officially taking over those responsibilities. She will also manage my Giclee reproductions and frames. I will therefore have more time to focus on creating new paintings for everyone to see.

Salmagundi Club
New York, New York
-->> Salmagundi Club <<--

Despite spending so much of my time working on the business I have continued to be active in the exhibition arena, and I continue to see growth and forward movement in that area. On that note... I have some exciting news: After a several month long review process I have been accepted into the prestigious Salmagundi Club located in New York City. I was honored to have two well known artists sponsor me: Christine Ivers and Claudia Seymore (President of the Salmagundi Club). I look forward to exhibiting and showing my art at the Salmagundi Club Gallery. This is a major achievement for me and is very exciting considering one of my business objectives for 2009 was to expand my reach and presence outside of Connecticut. This was one giant step toward that goal. Another step will be with Oil Painters of America.

Oil Painters of America
Crystal Lake, Illinois
-->> OPA Website <<--

While I have been a member of Oil Painters of America since 2008 I have yet to give proper attention on their member exhibitions. This will change now that Jennifer is helping me run the business. One of my business objectives for 2010 is to gain entry into national exhibits and win some awards. I fully intend to avail myself of the opportunities presented to me through the Salmagundi Club and Oil Painters of America.

On the local front, I will continue to exhibit work within Connecticut at the Lyme Art Gallery, Mytic Arts Center, and the Cheshire Art League. With Jennifer's help I will also be able to focus more attention on my webite repsonsibilities within the Cheshire Art League. The league and I are working to create individual member webpages featuring a short biography and artwork for each member in an effort to promote the league's artists. (see more at www.cheshireartleague.org)

On a final note, considering the condition of the economy, it has been very difficult to survive on original painting and reproduction sales alone. As a result I will begin offering oil painting lessons. Currently I am being assisted in this effort by my good friend Joan Shackford, President of the Cheshire Art League. Joan has many years of experience giving art lessons and teaching and her experience and guidance will help me to develop the needed skills. We are putting together a plan for my first series of lessons and we have about eight interested artists so far. As I gain experience and refine my teaching skills I plan to approach some of the Connecticut art leagues that offer proffessional art classes and take my teaching to a more formal setting. I will announce more about these efforts in future newsletters.

Thanks you everyone for following me on this journey.

John O'Keefe





Show Dates:
November 19th (Thursday) through November 22nd (Sunday), 2009
Show will be open for viewing during regular business hours of the Cheshire Nursery

Opening Reception:
November 19th (Thursday), 2009 ~ 5:00 to 8:00 PM

Location:
Cheshire Nursery
1317 S. Main St. (Route 10)
Cheshire, CT.

Details:
The Cheshire Art League will be having an Art Show and Sale at the Cheshire Nursery from November 19-22, 2009. This show will feature art of the Cheshire Art League members and will give them a chance to show and sell their work. The opening reception will be held on November 19th in conjunction with an event of the Cheshire Chamber of Commerce, who will also be having a reception on the 19th.

I will be hanging a selection of my original landscape paintings and Giclee reproductions. Please attend the reception if you can.





On August 29th I participated my first art show and sale that was part of a fundraising event in behalf of Ives Farm located in Cheshire Connecticut. I was invited to show my art by the event sponsor, the Cheshire Land Trust. It was very exciting and I displayed many of my original oil paintings and Giclee reproductions. I recently started offering high quality reproduction frames that you can see in the next images.


A highlight of the evening was having one of my Giclee reproductions sell at the event auction. Throughout the night I met many people, made new contacts, and talked about art. Additionally, I was able to share the experience with my children who helped me set up for the show and assist me during it. To close out the night I was extended an invitation by the event coordinator to participate in other upcoming events sponsored by the Cheshire Land Trust.

To learn more about this event please visit
-->> 'Art in Good Taste at Ives Farm' <<--

I was honored to be juried into the 53rd Regional exhibit sponsored by the Mystic Arts Center. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the opening reception, but my family and I viewed the exhibit at a later date and I can say it was an excellent display of artworks. The exhibit was juried by Carolina Pedraza. Carolina is the Head of Youth & Family Programs at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, a national leader in the exhibition of challenging contemporary art and the emergence of mid-career artists.

To learn more about this event please visit
-->> '53rd Regional' <<--

This was the higlight of my summer. I had a painting ('The Field's Edge') accepted into the Salmagundi Club's 2009 non-member exhibition. It was a packed house on the night of the exhibitions opening reception - standing room only! During the reception I had a chance to meet with the club's president, Claudia Seymore, and another member artist, Christine Ivers, whom I already know from the Connecitcut art scene. There were dozens more patrons and exhibition artists that I met, some artists even flew in from out of state to attend the reception. I have since been accpeted as an official artist member of the club. Very exciting for me!

To learn more about this event please visit
-->> Salmagundi Club's '2009 Non-Member Exhibit' <<--

I want to annouce that further changes (improvements) to my websites have been incorporated. There is a lot of work that goes into developing a website, i.e. web design standards, search engine optimization, etc., and I definately have been spending a lot of time on developing my websites. I had to make some compromises on the coding and as a result some older browsers may not display correctly. If this happens to you I apoligize, but please contact me and let me know. I needed to draw a line in the sand on my websites because I must paint. However, I think the sites are looking good now and I hope to only publish "new content" alerts in the future. Please take some time to check them out: www.okeefe-arts.com is for ordering and contains more details about me and my art. www.johnokeefe.net is set up to showcase just my art and resume. I will likely be featuring the latter site on future advertising and marketing liturature and let people go to the ordering site if they are interested.

-->> www.okeefe-arts.com <<--

-->> www.johnokeefe.net <<--

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-->> Newsletter Subscription and Unsubscription form <<--

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