Reflections on trip to California, Oct. 26-Nov. 11, 2016

We recently returned from a long road trip to California where I exhibited my art at the Sacramento Arts Fest. If you've followed me on this "journey as an artist" for very long, you know that I like to write about trips like this to share with my friends and fans. From when we left on Oct. 26 until we returned on Nov. 11 we put another 4, 127 miles on our Ford Transit!

AN EARLIER THAN USUAL START
For the first time, we decided to do something a bit different.  Instead of waiting until morning to get an early start, we left the evening before, rolling out at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 26, and drove through the night. As you know, Texas is a big state and just getting to the border takes several hours. By sunrise we were in El Paso and well on our way. Our first stop and layover for a few days would be Yuma, AZ, where David's dad, brother and cousin live. Since this is practically "on the way" to California, we had to include the visit in the itinerary.
We made it to Yuma by 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27. Over the next few days we visited with David's family, make a couple of trips across the border into Mexico, and enjoyed some amazing Southern Arizona sunsets and sunrises. We left out on Monday morning, headed for San Diego where we would be taking care of some business before making our way north to Sacramento.

SIGHTS AND SITES ALONG THE WAY
In the photo album at the top of this post are just a few of the photos I wanted to share from the journey and the show. The first five are from the show and I'll say more about that in a minute. But I wanted to say a little about the next four photos in the album. One of the fun things about a road trip is that you never know what you'll come across. The first photo is of an amazing sunset, taken from a parking lot, on our last night in Yuma, AZ. The big rusty dinosaur was at a road-side stop on the way to Yuma. The aliens in the third picture....well that was a total surprise as well. We were nearing Sacramento and needed to stop for gas. We pulled off at in Lathrop, CA (had a Facebook friend ask if we were in Roswell when I posted a pic...nope, California). While David was pumping gas, I went in to take care of other business and had one of those jaw-dropping moments. The entire convenience store was decorated in an alien theme, designed as if a flying saucer had crashed into the building and all the little green aliens were stocking up on supplies. What a treat! The fourth photo was from a visit to the rose garden in downtown Sacramento. I took tons of photos of the roses but this little praying mantis perched on a beautiful pink rose was my favorite.

ABOUT THE SHOW
This was our second time to exhibit at the Sacramento Arts Fest. We missed last year but we were there in 2014. It's one of the better organized shows with a long history, attracting art lovers and collectors from a large region. Many people remembered us from two years ago and were delighted to get my 2017 calendar and notecards again. When possible we like to take some smaller items in addition to a selection of my large paintings. We met several serious collectors but as we've seen before, when it comes to large purchases, it's not until the last day of the show that decisions are made.  Nearing closing time a lovely couple, Sharon and Bruce, stepped into the booth and began discussing which painting they wanted. After a several minutes, they settled on "A Texas Wildflower Sunset."

THE JOURNEY BACK HOME
We wrapped up the painting for Sharon and Bruce and soon the show was closing down and it was time to pack out. We left the next morning, heading east over the mountains to Lake Tahoe for  a brief stop and then southward along the backside of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. David and I both enjoy the perks from business trips like this of being able to see and enjoy the amazing scenery along the way. And this trip certainly did not disappoint! The next ten photos after the pink rose are just a few of the highlights that included fall color, mountains, pine trees and snow!

A NEW FAN AND COLLECTOR ALONG THE WAY
It's a rather long story but in a nutshell I had buyer, Bill, who was interested in my work and contacted me several weeks back. There was a particular painting he liked that he saw on an outdated website of a gallery that represented me at one point. As fate would have it, I was able to pick up the painting in San Diego on this trip. The buyer and I went back and forth through emails and texts discussing if and when we could meet and he could see the piece in person. He had a place in the Bay area and tried to make it to the show but it didn't work out. However, he also had a condo in Las Vegas, where he'd be during the week. Since Vegas was "on the way" home, we adjusted our route in that direction where we were finally able to catch up with Bill on Wednesday and do an in-home viewing of the piece he wanted as well as several other paintings we had with us from the show. The first photo below is of the painting he originally wanted, titled "Eternally Yours Again." And, yes, it was perfect match to the decor of the bedroom! He decided to create a "Linda Calvert Jacobson" collection and choose two more pieces, "Wildflower Escape" for the opposite wall, and "Almost Dusk" for the adjoining bathroom. So now three of my paintings are in a private collection in Las Vegas and a fourth in California as a result of this trip.

THE LONG HAUL HOME
Once we had that final sale settled, we hit the road and headed home. David decided to end the trip as started, by driving through the night to make time, only stopping along the way for gas and to rest the eyes. We wanted to be back in Texas in time for David to open our Wildflower Art Gallery Friday morning for the kick off for the Wimberley Alive event that was held Nov. 11-13. Wasn't easy but we did it! The final photo in the album at the top of this post is of a sunset in West Texas on Thursday evening.

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