This Saturday, if you enjoy bargains, home decor, art, Christmas shopping and the thrill of competitive bidding while indulging in food and beverages, ArtsNatchez Gallery at 425 Main St. is the place to be.  Our monthly Second Saturday open house and featured artists celebration begins at 5 p.m. and will include our annual Art Treasures Silent Auction finale. This auction is our largest fundraising event of the year and consists of a few hundred items ranging from fine art, luxurious jackets and furniture to glassware, silver platters and julep cups.  All these items have been donated to help bolster our operating expenses and keep the gallery operating and available as a venue for art lovers to browse, students to show their art, workshops to be conducted, wine tasting classes and guest artist showings.

ArtsNatchez Gallery opened in downtown Natchez in 2008.  It is a nonprofit membership organization of local artists managed by a Board of Directors.  Every artist works one day a month at the gallery and hundreds of original pieces of local art are available for sale.  Our auction aside, the gallery is a great year round marketplace to find works as original and authentic as can be found anywhere.  Nothing made in China hangs on our walls!

All items available for auction are in our back room, The Keith Karlson Gallery, except for a few overflow pieces of furniture that are in the middle room.  Bidding is open every day during gallery hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. leading up to Saturday evening.  Food, wine and beverages will be served beginning at 5 p.m. on Saturday with the closing bids starting around 6 p.m. running until all lots are closed, usually around 7 p.m. or a little later.

Items that caught my eye are a 2014 Great Mississippi River Balloon Race poster by Natchez native artist Tim Givens and a Joe Johnson pointillism portrait that both have been elegantly matted and framed by Dianne’s Frame Shop, a silver punch bowl & ladle, a genuine hornet’s nest (without hornets), a love seat, and some nice large mirrors mounted in beautiful frames.

Another attraction for the Second Saturday celebration are the works of our Featured Artists for November, Dorothy Ann Faillace and Sandy Lane.  A wall in our middle gallery room is dedicated to displaying their work.

Dorothy Ann Faillace grew up in the local rural Miss-Lou area.  She began painting and drawing in the first grade and has been strongly influenced by the scenes of our southern culture where she has spent her life.  Having an art degree from LSU and some sculpture education from Tulane, Ann taught art for ten years, six locally in Natchez.  After her oil painting studies in college and a period of watercolor work in abstract and realistic nature & landscape, Ann has been drawn back to oil media in her works that express her perspective of our southern environment and culture.  She enjoys being commissioned to create works for individuals’ homes and offices.

Sandy Lane was raised in Hawaii where light, color and atmosphere inspired her to express her passion for creation of paintings on canvas at a very young age.  After earning a university degree in art education and then a teaching career, Sandy and her husband moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where she raised her family, illustrated a children’s book and studied under many known artists of the day at the Scottsdale Artist School.  Her works have won acclaim through juried shows around the country.  Sandy always lets her subjects chose her, enjoying the thrill of each new creation and staying true to the original vision in hopes of producing joy to the viewer and her own personal satisfaction.

As you can see, there is a lot going on at ArtsNatchez Gallery this week.  Please stop in and browse 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week for original Christmas gifts and, by all means, please be there Saturday at 5 p.m. to bid on some great bargains and “Support The Arts”!
Mark Coffey is a member artist and the gallery coordinator at ArtsNatchez Gallery, 425 Main St. in Natchez.