Thunderstorms. The bane of the outdoor shows. Not just rain, that annoying stuff that drives away customers and makes everything wet. We're talking about cloud-to-ground lightening, howling winds, lashing rain. After a humid morning and afternoon, thunderstorms struck the West Hartford show about 4:00. When you're in a tent with metal rods, the best thing to do is zipper up and head for the nearest shelter. I spent an hour in a minivan with my fellow artists, watching the tents and actually seeing some of them collapse.
When the lightening and rain abated, I made it back to my tent. The roof had collapsed in the corners, spraying every thing with water. It was my own dumb fault. I had brought my light and easy-to-put-up tent top instead of the heavy duty but rainproof one. The mattes on all the prints were ruined where the water had soaked in. However, oil paintings are virtually indestructible, and with the exception of one corner of a frame where the veneer lifted and one linen canvas that needs to be restretched, I was in pretty good shape. After borrowing towels and doing my best to dry off everything, I loaded all the paintings into my car.
I spent Saturday evening rematting all the framed prints (glamorous life being an artist, isn't it?) and headed back to the show Sunday morning and set everything back up. I then had the best show of my entire career!!! Almost double my previous high!
This was a painting that I had just finished, called Tobacco Barns. It was from a scene in nearby Simsbury, just after sunset. Since it was large (30x40") it drew quite a bit of attention. This was the first time I showed it and it sold on Sunday.
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