Strawberry Festival...Quick Paint event- Cedarburg PA fest 2010

Funny I never shared this one...as it was a lot of fun to paint...while participating in the week long Cedarburg, WI plein air event this past summer...2010, the annual Strawberry Festival held on a Saturday with about 125,000 people suddenly showing up in the smaller town, streets filled with vendors, EZ-UP tents...crafts, arts, food...and offers a unique setting for the plein air event.

Quick paint...is just that...artists are given a window of time to paint...this year I think about 2-1/2 or 3 hours...a little extra time to work one's way thru the crowd with a wet painting.

Roughly 165 artists participating thru the week...perhap about half that or less for the Quick paint.  I knew that painters would be all over the crowds, the energy and buzz, the tents and my thinking was, really would one more painting of that scene stand out exhibited?

So...I decided to have fun...

10"x 20" oil on pumice panel

Such an event is crazy with crowds.  Figured for one, what is more Wisconsin and festivals without the traditional beer and a brat...so, set up in a walkway or alley between where the brats were being cooked and served.  The grill was very hot and little breezeway.  Ugh!

Set the foods on my Guerrilla pochade box lid elevated by my tripod starting with the brat.  When that was done...I went running up the main street looking for my ideal beer.  Something with color...not a light beer, but more robust...and finding it returned, squirming thru the crowds and remember...this is a timed event, so a knot is in the stomach trying to do what seems the impossible.

The plastic cup was sweating nicely adding to its austerity.  Then...to put the last touch...being a "Strawberry Festival"...was once again working my way thru the crowd with urgency looking for the ideal strawberry.  This chocolate cover fat big strawberry was the ticket!

Having finished the work...the proprietor seeing my work told me they should never have charged me for that brat seeing how I gave theirs such dignity...and invited me back after turning it in for a free one on the house.  I certainly took them up on that!  8^)

Biased...but, I think this one is worth clicking on to see larger image...