Summer's Swift Passage

Summer is flying by, and we have only a few weeks to call it our own before the appearance of Autumn. I had the pleasure of taking part in a "Plein-Air Paintout" as part of the California State Fair here in Sacramento, where about 35 artists spent two days painting in public at the fair. We then presented our work in the art section for comment, ridicule, awards and general viewing. These are the pieces that I completed.  The top work is of the stairs leading to the Raging Waters waterslide, as seen from the Forest section of the fairgrounds. Kids haul huge floats up the wooden stairs, and then jump into a slide/tube, and scream until they come out the end, splashing into a pool. Fun... right?

 These are the view I chose for the other painting. The one on the left is the composition "test" I did after scouting the fairgrounds a few days earlier, and the one on the right is the one I did for presentation. Left is pallet knife, the right is brushwork.  I sat under the shade of huge redwood trees, at picnic benches, in a lovely setting.      

                                                                                

I was amused to find that the people who talked to me were generally kids, who asked: "What are you doing?", as if they had never seen anyone paint before, (a sad comment on the arts in schools, no?)