NAN & Breyerfest 2012
I've been back from the frenzied week of NAN/Breyerfest activities for a few days now, and I'm finally starting to "come down" a little. Here at home, I'm usually allowed to work at a very leisurely pace, painting a bit, taking frequent breaks. But all of this changes if I decide to do both NAN and Breyerfest in KY, plus the Artisan's Gallery, which typically runs Thursday night through Saturday night.
It's a week of utter chaos, because there is so much to do! And the prep work for it is also insane. My entire Nationals show string has to be packed and shipped a couple of weeks ahead of time. Then, of course, there are sales, so new things must be painted. It shoots me into an unhealthy manic overdrive, where I hunch over my airbrush for way too many hours and days at a time. I can paint faster than ever when I switch over to this mindset; but everything else (eating right, visiting friends and family, sleep and general hygiene) go flying out the window for a few weeks. It's a love/hate kind of thing. I love the excitement and seeing my friends at Breyerfest, but I hate what it does to me mentally and physically.
However, it was an entirely successful event, so no complaints here, other than the fact I'm writing this at 5 a.m. my time - because it's 8 a.m. east coast time, and last week, that meant I had to be SOMEWHERE.
For NAN, my own personal show string won eight "cookies" but I saw many others who had brought past custom orders to show, so the actually tally of winners involving my paint work was closer to 18 or so. My strongest showing was in the Workmanship Division. Champs in Workmanship included Custom Dilute Workmanship, Custom Overo, and Custom Tobiano Workmanship. Here are a few photos of some winners:
Over at Breyerfest Live a couple of days afterward, my models exceeded all expectations! You never know how you'll place - these are HUGE shows with truly the best competition in the country. Sometimes it goes your way, other times, not so much. While Becky and I worked extremely hard to do our very best work this year, with such stiff competition, there's no telling.
Here are a few photos from the show:
Normally I wouldn't do so well at this show, because flying in from AZ limits how much stuff you can realistically take . . . and I hate to ship items out and risk them breaking. But, since they were going to show at NAN, there were over 20 of my personal customs at the show. (Compared to maybe 12 or so last year?) A couple of other artists who beat me last year failed to attend this year, or had extremely light show strings. I certainly don't expect to do this well again!
Right after the Open show was Breyer's auction of OOAK and test pieces. I was super excited this year, because when they had me out at the Breyer headquarters for the Kid's event to teach back in April 2012, I took a few days to paint some models in the factory! Including the rare, and cherished, Alborozo! He went for $8,000 at auction, which is less than the 13k the first auction model sold for, but still that's a lot of moolah for charity!
The next morning, I had a workshop for the clear "Suncatcher Stablemates". It feels like cheating to teach this class, because it is just so much fun! The students made some fabulous creations:
Aside from the showing, I had a great time hanging out with everyone! There were a couple of people that I really wanted to visit with a lot more, but it's tough with everyone in different hotels and of course, with many of my friends being artists, they also have to take care of sales.
Saturday night we were too exhausted to face the debauchery at the CHIN hotel bar, so we headed back to the Embassy for their free happy hour, where we ran into the Jouster fellas from "Full Metal Jousting". That was entertainment for sure! We absolutely loved staying at the Embassy and are kind of mystified that more hobby folks haven't discovered it yet.
Then is was back on a plane across country . . . still winding down from everything and trying to recover! In all this madness, later I realized that I didn't get any photos of the PEOPLE. Not one single photo of me or my friends hanging out. That's criminal! I know it was busy, but what a shame that I didn't get even one shot of us all together. Arrgh!!! I will remember next time, for sure . . . .
It's a week of utter chaos, because there is so much to do! And the prep work for it is also insane. My entire Nationals show string has to be packed and shipped a couple of weeks ahead of time. Then, of course, there are sales, so new things must be painted. It shoots me into an unhealthy manic overdrive, where I hunch over my airbrush for way too many hours and days at a time. I can paint faster than ever when I switch over to this mindset; but everything else (eating right, visiting friends and family, sleep and general hygiene) go flying out the window for a few weeks. It's a love/hate kind of thing. I love the excitement and seeing my friends at Breyerfest, but I hate what it does to me mentally and physically.
However, it was an entirely successful event, so no complaints here, other than the fact I'm writing this at 5 a.m. my time - because it's 8 a.m. east coast time, and last week, that meant I had to be SOMEWHERE.
 |
| Set-up for NAN was something like 7am. That's 4am, AZ time. Ouch. |
Over at Breyerfest Live a couple of days afterward, my models exceeded all expectations! You never know how you'll place - these are HUGE shows with truly the best competition in the country. Sometimes it goes your way, other times, not so much. While Becky and I worked extremely hard to do our very best work this year, with such stiff competition, there's no telling.
 |
| This was not even a particularly large class. |
Normally I wouldn't do so well at this show, because flying in from AZ limits how much stuff you can realistically take . . . and I hate to ship items out and risk them breaking. But, since they were going to show at NAN, there were over 20 of my personal customs at the show. (Compared to maybe 12 or so last year?) A couple of other artists who beat me last year failed to attend this year, or had extremely light show strings. I certainly don't expect to do this well again!
Right after the Open show was Breyer's auction of OOAK and test pieces. I was super excited this year, because when they had me out at the Breyer headquarters for the Kid's event to teach back in April 2012, I took a few days to paint some models in the factory! Including the rare, and cherished, Alborozo! He went for $8,000 at auction, which is less than the 13k the first auction model sold for, but still that's a lot of moolah for charity!
The next morning, I had a workshop for the clear "Suncatcher Stablemates". It feels like cheating to teach this class, because it is just so much fun! The students made some fabulous creations:
Aside from the showing, I had a great time hanging out with everyone! There were a couple of people that I really wanted to visit with a lot more, but it's tough with everyone in different hotels and of course, with many of my friends being artists, they also have to take care of sales.
Saturday night we were too exhausted to face the debauchery at the CHIN hotel bar, so we headed back to the Embassy for their free happy hour, where we ran into the Jouster fellas from "Full Metal Jousting". That was entertainment for sure! We absolutely loved staying at the Embassy and are kind of mystified that more hobby folks haven't discovered it yet.
Then is was back on a plane across country . . . still winding down from everything and trying to recover! In all this madness, later I realized that I didn't get any photos of the PEOPLE. Not one single photo of me or my friends hanging out. That's criminal! I know it was busy, but what a shame that I didn't get even one shot of us all together. Arrgh!!! I will remember next time, for sure . . . .
Comments
Post a Comment