Northern Illinois Antique Dealer Show Feb. 18-19 2012

Didn't we just put away the Christmas decorations?  How can it be time for the NIADA Show--but it is.  February 18-19 at the Forest Hills Lodge in Rockford Illinois.  It is the 52nd annual show--and we are doing it for the second year.  So this is a week of unpacking inventory, setting up vignettes, making small repairs and testing lamps and making price tags.

We will be taking a wonderful decorative mix.  Our booth will focus on good, affordable vintage and antique decorative items that are "room ready."  Some fabulous paintings and lamps and lots of quirky one of a kind items.

This is a medium sized show--with good quality dealers and is really well run.  If you are looking for furniture or smalls--this show is for you.  Don't think postcards and Roseville pottery.  This collection of dealers creates good displays--it is a terrific show.

Lately I am obsessed by paintings of houses.  Something about vintage house paintings gets my imagination rolling.  Beyond the obvious of whose house is it--  why was this painted?  A family member? An itinerant painter who came calling one day and painted it for $1.00?  Where has it been hanging for so long?  What was the journey it took to get to my workroom and now be part of a blog post? This was someone's HOME it isn't just a house.   If anything makes me remember that we are just caretakers of "stuff" and someday everything I am living with today will be in someone else's hands--it is looking at long ago painted house paintings.

These are two house paintings that I recently acquired--and they will be coming with us to the NIADA show this weekend.  On the reverse of the first one--it is signed by the painter--Estella G*****, from Ottawa Illinois.  It is a colorful oil in a drop dead gorgeous cream and gold gesso frame.  The second one is a well done oil  on a small piece of rough canvas--original frame--and backed by an old advertising board. 

This weekend these paintings will hopefully move on to new owners who will love them.  And the journey continues.