2009 Kickoff ....Part 2

February is the shortest month of the year, so there aren't too many days off.

Feb 1st was the grand opening of the Safety Harbor Museum's Tenth Annual Highwaymen exhibit and sale. It just doesn't seem like Y2K was a decade ago, but I actually counted on my fingers just to make sure and I had to use all ten. Math whiz, eh ?

We helped the Museum, as we have in the past, fill in some holes they had in their quest to hang paintings by each of the 26 highwaymen. This year, all they needed was a George and an Ellis Buckner, and an Alphonse Moran.

Moran, a barber, was too busy cutting hair before he passed on to the next life, I guess, so his art work is often hard to come by. I bet I've seen two hundred Harold Newton paintings for every one painting I've seen by Moran. I had sold a sweet poinciana by him last May, though, and was pleased that the collectors who own it allowed us to use it for the exhibition. It's a great one, too.

The Buckner brothers were more prolific, however, and it was much easier to find a couple of nice ones, a seascape by Ellis and a poinciana by George.

Also, on display as part of the exhibit, is the Schlesinger painting, the Harold Newton self portrait that was featured in Antiques and Art Around Florida last summer.

The museum has graciously allowed me additional wall space to display some working inventory, (stuff I've got for sale), about a dozen Harolds, four Hairs and a few miscellaneous highwaymen, including an upson Hezekiah Baker signed by Al Black and a 24 x 48 Mary Ann Carroll on canvas done in 1990.

We did the West Palm show last weekend, and again, as in January, the crowd was ENORMOUS. Larry, one of the out-front outside vendors at the show told me he has NEVER seen the line of customers so long, waiting for the show to open at noon on Friday. The public was spending money, people, fewer dealers were complaining.

I saw headlines yesterday that retail spending was way up in January and I can vouch for that based on first-time sales to new retail customers. Best show we've had since the beginning of the summer.