Art Shopping

The Spring Bazaar was this weekend. For those of you not familiar with this, it's an event on the base where they bring in vendors from all over Europe and you can find all kinds of things from chocolate, cheese and wine to pottery, art and European antiques. Normally I don't do much shopping because I prefer to buy things when I visit the county. But there were a couple of things I've been wanting for several years, so we finally went ahead and got them.

Russian Santa

I've wanted a Russian Santa for about eight years. They are so beautiful! Each one is (as far as I know) hand carved and hand painted. When I went to scope them out I immediately fell in love with this one. When I brought Rob back the next day to look with me he chose the same one. So we knew that was the one! I should have taken a closeup for you too. The detail is so amazing! Some of the lines look like they were painted with a single hair paint brush! So delicate!

Silva Art

I think I first encountered Silva Art about three years ago, and I was hooked! His style is so unique and appealing to me. Well, no surprise really considering how much I love Spain and all art from there! Probably not everyone's style, but definitely the kind of stuff Rob and I enjoy looking at. After staring at them for about thirty minutes and wishing we could buy about five pieces, this was the one we ended up. It's called "Vendedor de Pajaros en Bicicleta." The really neat thing about his watercolors is that the design is pressed down into the paper and then painted. So the paper around the paint is higher. Does that make sense? Guillermo Silva died in 2007 and his son Juan was representing the artwork. Take a minute to check out their website. I have no idea that he had such an influence on art in Spain!