Just in time for Christmas, this cute painting of a “Baaahrtridge In A Bear Tree” has hit the market with prints, giclée art on canvas, mugs, necklaces, and license plate available.
https://www.charisma-art.com/a-baaahrtridge-in-a-bear-tree


Just in time for Christmas, this cute painting of a “Baaahrtridge In A Bear Tree” has hit the market with prints, giclée art on canvas, mugs, necklaces, and license plate available.
https://www.charisma-art.com/a-baaahrtridge-in-a-bear-tree
This weekend, the internationally collected, award winning "Sheep Incognito" flock of paintings, prints, and sheepishness by Anderson resident Conni Togel returns home to join the group of outstanding vendors for the annual "Holly Jolly Holiday Fair" at the Anderson Civic Center.
Anderson is 45 minutes from Greenville, SC (number #6 on the list of "Fastest Growing Cities in the USA"), home to BMW USA, Michelin, USA; 20 minutes to Clemson University; 2 hours to Atlanta, GA; 10 minutes to Lake Hartwell; 1 1/2 hours to the Blue Ridge Parkway; 2 hours to Asheville, NC.
This is where the Sheep Incognito Studio has been located since 2005.
This weekend November 17-19, 2017, artists and crafters from the Southeast gather for the annual Holly Jolly Holiday Fair at the Anderson Civic center for a holiday market filled with great gift ideas, holiday ch
eer, and of course, some sheepish humor in Conni's paintings and prints.
Times:
Friday, November 17, 2017: VIP Night Opening 5 pm – 9pm
Saturday, November 18, 2017: 10 am-6pm
Sunday, November 19, 2017: 1pm – 5 pm
Tickets are available here: https://www.hollyjollyholidayfair.com/tickets
We made it to our first show in 2016 in Dunedin Florida – our trailer had been stolen, broken into, everything dumped in the woods, and much of it destroyed, right before Christmas.
Nonetheless: Christmas was awesome, and it gave us at least a few days to be with family.
And, fortunately I have insurance that will hopefully cover most of the lost art and the damage to my show setup and other artwork.
So with beautiful weather under palm trees, life is still good.
Even with some rain and some flooding this afternoon, we still ate happy to have made it down here, even if the panels are crooked, the frames scratched, and some of the sheep a bit muddy – they still have the capacity to make people smile.
Which is nice.
As a professional artist, it is easy to fall into a rut – where the familiar is easifly found, the usual processes make things simple, and re-hashing subjects saves time.
Guilty as charged. Of all of that.
But, because the creative, slightly whacky artistic part of the brain demands to be fed, there is also the “I Double-Dog-Dare You” of the mind, to slip out of the comfort zone into something a little more unccomfortable – the Zone of the Unknown.
New techniques.
New subject matter.
New ideas.
New Production methods.
Perhaps a new location. Anything to change the stagnant one way roads on the mind-map into a new, interesting tapestry of interestiing things to explore.
And so I diverted from the Sheep Incognito path for a few moments – not burning bridges behind me, but rather a step off of the well-worn path into a small patch of forest I have not explored yet: the hugely diverse, and not yet familiar field of digital painting. Something I’ve been wanting to try for years, but had not yet had the chance to play with.
Armed with a huge list of questions, I approached some good artist friends, to ask a hole in their tummies about best software? Best hardware? Best computer? And, most important: will I be able to keep my work recognizeable, even with a different media and technique, possibly with new subject matter, as well?
Being blessed with good people to know, is – in fact – as they say, a blessing. I learned more in a five-minute conversation with them, than I would have been able to find in a library in weeks… so, thank ewe, dear friendly Friends (ewe know who ewe are, cawcawww) – for inspiration, support, and confidence-building. This is a step into the unknown – so here goes…
After a few initial mis-starts, I just finished my first full-fledged digital painting. I did use reference photos, simply because there is no reason to do things a difficult way, if the easy way works better.
COMING TO WEST FRIENDSHIP MD THIS WEEKEND: The Sheep Incognito by Conni Tögel flock of fun and funny sheep paintings, such as the best-seller, DANCES WITH WOOLS
Also available as prints on paper and canvas in various sizes on the http://charisma-art.com website
While we *should* be on the road home to South Carolina, we instead are parked in front of a car shop again…this time in Loveland, Colorado with a cracked cylinder head and a cracked manifold.
Hopefully they will get us on the road again by Tuesday evening – we should have been in Corolla Island for an art show las Tuesday already…this testing my patience for sure.,
So right now, the status is “we should have you on the road by tonight”.
But I’m not sure I am buying that…
Nonetheless – we are aiming to be in Latrobe, PA for the Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festival for the 4th of July.
Let’s see if that can be done.
For now, here’s a memory I’ll share of this trip:
Springtime Madness is about to start!
Next weekend we will be hitting the road again for a series of Spring shows – we are more than ready for some warmer temperatures, not having to scrape the windows on the car in the morning, and getting to have a cup of coffee outside in the sunshine.
Which makes it quite a nice thing, that the Spring Craftsmen’s Classic in Columbia is right around the corner. It is always one of our nicer shows to participate in – much like a good family reunion, complete with lots of laughs, a tad of drama, and our favorite stalkers, all in one venue: the SC Fairgrounds.
There will be a huge range of handmade, original, creative artwork and crafts there – some good ole favorites, and some new, cutting edge things.
I will be unleashing some new Sheep Incognito paintings and prints there as well – gotta enlarge the flock, because much like a real flock of sheep, they just keep multiplying.
New kids (or lambs) on the block:
Into The Hills – a rather large landscape in oils, complete with my famous poppies and blue trees.
Pompous Ass
There might be a few others hanging out for the first time as well – ya just never know, with sheep.
Of course, while we are in Columbia, we will also be checking out the local eateries – our favorite part of any of our tours. From what I remember, there is an incredible sandwich shop with lines out the door in town – and, a brewery that has quite a large range of craft beers to try.
Hotels in town? the Marriott downtown seemed to be a pretty nice place to stay – the price was better than some of the other midrange hotels, they were quite good about customer service (computers down? Free dinner, free drinks while they work on the problem). One downside: the noise level on Saturday night out on the street was a bit distracting after a long day at the show – but then again: maybe we should have joined the party instead.
So if you need something to inspire you next weekend, come visit us at the Sheep Incognito booth at the Craftsmen’s Classics in Columbia, SC – we’d love to introduce you to some new sheepish smiles! (And if we are really lucky, our favorite stalker will be there with his camera again – maybe we can all photobomb together :o)) )