Fair Daze

Begonias work in progress, 12x16 pastel, copyright 2012

It's fair week here in Preble County, and in rural places the county fair is still a big deal as the community comes together to show off the best of the best.  This year the Preble County Art Association became deeply involved in the fine arts display, and I am on that committee.  It means that I haven't had a lot of time for painting the past few weeks, though I finally got a chance yesterday.

Local artists have been taking turns doing demonstrations at the fair, and yesterday was my turn.  The art display is housed in the same building as the flowers, and it's turned out to be an excellent combination.  For my demo I chose to start painting a pot of begonias.  This is the result of a few hours of work, punctuated by greeting and chatting with visitors.  The leaves will need a bit of work - the lighting wasn't ideal - but I feel like it's a good start.  I'll have to finish it from memory though, as the flowers were cleared out at the end of the day.

I'll be back tomorrow for another demo, and possibly Friday night when a group of artists plan to get together to paint scenes from the fair.  The Art Association's September show will be "Scenes from the Preble County Fair", so I need to get to work.  I've taken a few reference photos, but working plein air in front of a crowd should be a good experience.

By the way, I entered three pieces in the fair, and two of them, Winter Reflections and Bank Barn in Early Spring placed second in the oil and pastel categories.