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| "Market Day" 14x11 oil on panel Sold |
Recently Ann and I attended the 11th Annual Plein Air Festival hosted by the Lighthouse Art Center in Tequesta Florida. It's been 5 years since I participated in "Lighthouse" and it was really cool to see how much bigger and better the organizers have made this event! Also a lot of fun to run into artist friends that you really don't get a chance to see much outside of these shows. I can see why many artists travel the circuit spending all summer at various plein air events around the country.
Usually at these competitions the "Quick Draw" as they call it, is near the end of the weeks programs. This time the first Sunday of the festival was the "Quick Draw" it actually worked pretty good as a way to get the artists submersed in the mindset of competition painting at one of the larger plein air festivals in the country. We all met at Harbourside Place in Tequesta, a large complex of shops and restaurants hosting a Market on Sundays for local vendors. The artists all got reacquainted with their "tribe" and set up wherever they thought would make the best composition for a painting.
I scoped out a scene the day before where I could locate my easel on a street corner with some attractive umbrellas surrounding an outdoor restaurant. I got there early to grab my spot as other artists with the same idea set up around me. The comradery of the artists made it a lot of fun as we laughed and told stories of all our travels.
We had two hours to complete a painting and the artists got serious when the horn sounded and the painting began. All was going pretty well until the sky started to turn dark and it looked like a squall was moving in....and boy did it! Artists started running for cover as the skies opened up! All part of the plein air experience! I was under a partial cover and was able to get my painting mostly done and over to a covered are for judging and sales. Whew! You never know what you will run into during these events!!
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