Robin Luciano Beaty's show at the NAA

If you haven't had a chance to view Robin's show at the Newburyport Art Association, I really recommend it. Robin's work is encaustic wax paintings and she's got a tremendous selection of very large paintings as well as groupings of her smaller 8" pieces. Her solo show runs through Sunday, June 6th.

Part of Jim Conley's collection

Jim Conley and I were talking last weekend about his history in Newburyport with Conley's Goldsmiths Silversmiths and the variety of pieces he has made over the 20+ years for customers. In addition to rings and jewelry, Jim has crafted a chalice for a local church, as well as a beautiful commemorative box lined with zebra wood for a very grand wedding. If you would like to have your own beautiful custom piece made (like some of these people did), just let us know or stop by to see Jim in person on most Saturday mornings 10-12:30.

New photograph by John Geesink

Every month or so Newburyport photographer John Geesink comes by the shop to bring me new photographs. This beautiful one is called "Team Flying" and was taken late one afternoon on Nelson Island in Rowley (part of the Federal Wildlife Refuge of Plum Island). The Canada Geese look powerful, and beautiful against the blurred soft colors of the background.

New cards by Sigrid Olsen art

We're excited to showcase a new line of locally-made cards by Sigrid Olsen of Gloucester, Mass. Sigrid creates wonderful, color-saturated block prints and paintings; and prints card reproductions. We love them and hope you do too!

Visit to RSID/works

RISD/works was awesome -- On a recent trip to RI, we stopped by the Rhode Island School of Design gift shop. All items made by RISD alumni. As always I was especially drawn to pottery -- particularly Loren Chen and Asya Palatova. And Herman Yu cards. Other functional modern pieces too, and lots of jewelry. Good to see one of our jewelry artists in their cases too: Devienna Anggraini. Great shop!

Spring Invitation Nights -- tomorrow!

Friday, May 7 and Friday, May 14 are the Newburyport Spring Invitation Nights. From 6 to 9 pm, enjoy merchant hospitality as shops offer refreshments and a fun night of shopping. And, if you visit 10 shops during the week and have shop personnel initialize your Shop & Dine Card, you could win a bundle of $1000 different gift certificates, ($50 gift certificates from 20 different shops and restaurants).

Cute as a button -- this a.i. paper frame and pet rats

We love pictures from our customers showing how they use and display merchandise from our store. This sweet picture was just sent to us from Gina in Salisbury, showing one of our new handmade paper frames from a.i. paper design with the sweetest picture of her two pet fancy rats "Autumn" and "Summer" -- thanks Gina for the beautiful picture! Check out other "art at home" submissions at our website.

Open Thurs. & Fri. till 7 pm

We're now open till 7 pm on Thursday and Friday evenings -- we hope this makes us even more convenient for you. We asked in our e-newsletter about shopping hours at our store and Newburyport in general. The evening most people picked as being their first choice for later shopping was Thursday, followed by Friday. So, now we're doing both. Thank you for your input :)   And hope to see you soon!

Plum Island -- 100th anniversary of flight

Did you know the history of flight on PI is celebrating its 100th anniversary this week? Bruce Carter of Newburyport, has taken the aerial photographs that we have here in the gallery, and has been working on this beautiful diorama commemorating the 100th anniversary. A story appeared in Friday's The Daily News.

New mirrors just arrived

It's been a couple of years since we've had these mirrors by Old Pool Glassworks in Maine and I'm so excited to have them here again. The stained glass ones are really pretty with lots of blues and greens; and I love the beach rock one too. Mirrors are 16"x16" and range from $116-$146

New encaustic painting by Robin Luciano Beaty

"Confluence #5" -- encaustic wax, 36"x36"

Artist demonstration with Matt Brown on Saturday, ArtWalk

Reminder: This Saturday, 4/10, is the first ArtWalk special event for 2010 and we're excited that woodblock printmaker Matt Brown will be here doing a demonstration! Please join us between 4 and 7 pm.  Matt makes his prints using the traditional Japanese hanga method, with a rope barren to rub the paper over multiple colored woodblocks. These are prints made by hand, without a press. Matt will offer a demonstration of this method. Please stop by to meet Matt, see more prints in person, and learn more about the process. Hope to see many of you here for this special event!

Open Later in Newburyport

Did you know you can shop in the evening during the spring in Newburyport? Here's a list of all the stores that are open at least one night. (Please click on image to view larger.) Also, see this week's article in the Daily News of Newburyport...

New artist: Colleen Kidder

We want to let everyone that we're now showing paintings by Ipswich, MA artist Colleen Kidder. Colleen studied art history and painting continuously throughout the 1970's in New York and Vermont. While in Boston during the 1980's she studied textile and jewelry design.
In 1992 she moved with her husband and two sons to Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1992 and opened "Eliza Gray's Goods," a retail shop dealing with merchandised home furnishings and antiques as well as her own jewelry designs and paintings.

In 2000 Colleen closed her shop and built a studio next to her home so that she could pursue her passion for painting.  I love Colleen's fresh colors and the texture of the oil pastels of many of her paintings. Below are "In the Clouds" (oil pastel) and "On the Hill" (oil).

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Handmade cards by local artist Gina Lee Kim now available!

We're really pleased to now offer handmade cards by local artist Gina Lee Kim. These watercolor & mixed-media cards are 5" x 7" size - perfect for framing! Cards are $10 each and have a special backstory.

According to Gina's blog these are not prints but lovingly handmade, each-an-original mini-art cards with stitching, doilies, ribbon and fabric. Each one is slightly different. For more information on purchasing, please call (978) 499-8444.

Thursdays till 7 pm

Beginning tonight our shop is now open Thursdays till 7 pm. Did you know that many other shops in downtown Newburyport are also open in the evening? Starting April 1, there are about 20 businesses that are open Thursday, Friday or Saturday evenings in town. I didn't realize it myself until we compiled a list. Look for posters around town in the next week. And most importantly we hope this is convenient for you to stop by on your way home from work if you work in the city or just can't make it before 5:30 or 6 pm.

Valerie's Gallery custom designed new necklace

This is kind of an exciting moment for us. One of our regular jewelry designers, Donnabeth Mitchell, has created a new colorway inspired by one of our suggestions. This is not the best photograph, but it gives you an idea. It's a very pretty lavender and light blue with a bit of green and sparkle of fuschia. Very soft colors. Thanks Donnabeth! It's so much prettier in person - please take a peek in person if you're in the shop.

New florals by Dorothy Kerper Monnelly

Just wanted to share two new beautiful photographs by Dorothy Kerper Monnelly. These are taken with a 4x5 medium format camera. I just love them!

Two new designs by Jim Conley

Jeweler Jim Conley has just created two new beautiful rings. Just wanted to share a sneak peak of them to you.

ArtWalk guest artist: Matt Brown

We're very excited to have woodblock printmaker Matt Brown here for the first ArtWalk  for 2010. Look for Matt to be here around 4 or 5 pm on Saturday, April 10. Matt makes his prints using the traditional Japanese hanga method, with a rope barren to rub the paper over multiple colored woodblocks. These are prints made by hand, without a press. Matt will offer a demonstration of this method. Please stop by to meet Matt, see more prints in person, and learn more about the process. Hope to see many of you here for this special event!.

More online shopping

We've been adding new collections to our website for online shopping. New jewelry by Donnabeth Mitchell, Philippa Roberts, Jill O'Reilly, Kathy Bransfield and Lauren Pollaro can now be purchased online. We're going to try really hard to keep it up-to-date so only those items for sale are pictures in the Online Shopping area. We know we're all busy and this, we hope, is a convenient step for customers who might not want to come out on these really cold days. We've also put up some mugs by Purple Sage Pottery and some of the new Beehive pewter kitchenware.

For example, click below to see some of the jewelry available to purchase online by...

Donnabeth Mitchell

Philippa Roberts

 

Jill O'Reilly

Kathy Bransfield

Purple Sage Pottery

Beehive pewter kitchenware

Introducing a new line of handmade cards!

I'm very pleased to announce that Valerie's Gallery is now offering a new collection of very pretty, locally-made Weehah! cards by Louisa Wimberger. Louisa may seem familar to some of you as she sold her cards at the Tannery's Farmers' Market in Newburyport this past summer! Retail price per card is $3.95.

Thank you for a wonderful season

To all our wonderful customers, thank you for your business and support this holiday season and throughout the year. We all appreciate it very much! 

Iris Minc, Purple Sage Pottery videos

We have a new pottery video interview/demonstration on our website. We've been selling the ceramic work of Iris Minc, owner of Purple Sage Pottery in Merrimac, Mass., for awhile now, and we sat down with her while she was throwing teacups on her pottery wheel. She talks about wheel thrown and slab pottery, her different glazes, and the kiln firing process. If you're new to pottery and would like to learn more about the work involved, from a local potter too, this is is terrific and fascinatng information.The interview is divided into four videos (one about her, and three about the craft). Click here to go to the videos page.

Color woodblock prints by Matt Brown

Woodblock prints by Matt Brown are now hanging in our gallery. Using multiple blocks of wood, and carving different parts of the final image into each block, Matt creates layered pictorial scenes of the lakes, mountains and oceans. They're wonderful to see in person and I hope you'll stop in to take a look.

ArtWalk 10/24/09

The next Newburyport ArtWalk is Saturday, 10/24 from 3 to 7 pm.

Invitation Nights 12/4 and 12/11

The first two Friday nights of December are traditionally "Invitation Nights" here in Newburyport. Merchants stay open till 9 pm, serving refreshments and holiday spirit to begin the shopping season.

Introducing Two New Artists

We are very pleased to annouce two wonderful new artists to our gallery. Steel and river rocks by Festa Lamps of California and wood shorebirds by Paul Beauregard of Georgetown, Massachusetts. We look forward to seeing you in our gallery or feel free to visit our website at http://www.valeriesgalleries.com/.

Featured artist: Robin Luciano Beaty

Robin Luciano Beaty is our featured artist through Sept. 21. Stop by to see her newest encaustic paintings. Through photographs like this, one misses the beautiful luminosity of the encaustic wax and the three-dimensional effect of the various textures and elements she includes in her paintings. It's worth a visit to see the work in person so we hope you'll stop by soon.

Letterpress cards by B Designs

I'm excited to now carry a wonderful little line of letterpress notecards by B Designs of Amesbury, Mass. We have dozens of designs (these are just a sample pictured) and they are sweet, subtle images of usually about 1" square on a 3x5 folded notecard. By using simple, unassuming vintage illustrations combined with carefully selected typography, and the letterpress technique, you get a clear, crisp image that is slightly raised to the touch, and unlike any other commercial printed cards. Cards are sold individually.

Meet Robin Luciano Beaty Aug. 22, 3-6 pm

Here at Valerie's, Robin Luciano Beaty will have a featured show of her newest encaustic paintings from August 19 through Sept. 21. Come meet Robin during a special art opening during the upcoming ArtWalk on Saturday, August 22 from 3 to 6 pm. Robin uses encaustic wax mixed and mixed media to create wonderful, textural paintings. It's a fascinating medium to work with, requiring a warm palette for the "wax" paint and brushes, and materials such as a heat gun, and items to embed in her paintings. We hope you'll stop by to meet robin and see the show.

And back by popular demand...

Well that's not exactly true, but Eileen's demonstration was very popular and fascinating for adults and children so we've asked her back. During the Saturday, June 27 ArtWalk, Eileen will once again be demonstrating how she paints floorcloths and other painting techniques. Eileen also does painted furniture, gilding, wall murals, and more. She will also be teaching upcoming classes at the Tannery at her new studio. Please come by; we'd love to show you her work.

Floorcloth demonstration

Eileen Whalen was here on the second invitation night on May 9 to demonstrate floorcloth painting and gilding.

Store Anniversary & Retailer of the Year

Sometime I can't quite believe it, but it's our store's 7th anniversary next week so we'll be celebrating with cake on Saturday, May 23. Please come in and enter to win a $50 store gift certificate. We have another reason to celebrate as we were just awarded "Newburyport Retailer of the Year" by the Chamber of Commerce yesterday! Thank you to all our customers for your business and friendship and to my staff who always provide helpful and friendly service: Diane, Danielle and Pauline

Chocolate Tour May 16

We are excited to participate in this year's American Red Cross Chocolate Tour of Newburyport. Tickets are $15 and attendees get to go to 20+ merchants around town for a chocolate goodie. You can buy tickets that day at the Unitarian Church on Pleasant Street or in advance at The Ruby Slipper, Valentine's, and Ballotin Chocolates.

Artist Demo: Eileen Whalen -- May 8th (Friday)

On Friday, May 8, from 6 to 8 pm, Eileen Whalen will be demonstrating how she paints her floorcloths.

In addition to canvas floorcloths, Eileen does a lot of faux finish treatments for walls, and painted furniture. Recently, one of our customers requested Eileen to make two "wall" paintings for her home. Pictured at left are the wall paintings just before being delivered to the customer. Also, pictured at top are the floorcloths Eileen has been creating for us. Come by to see Eileen's demonstration on Friday.