SLO Part 2 Hope, doubts and losses.

We had lovely weather the entire time, I was well positioned being in Santa Margarita as it was inland and got more sun that the coast. Some artists when to Morro Bay in the mornings and had to deal with fog. All I ever had was a little grey on one moring and some patchy clouds with sprinkles one day. I did a few paintings I didn't like that I might post after I fix, but hit my stride with this little one done down a back road in Santa Margarita where it was very rural, just my kind of subject.

When I walked up on this property, the owner was working on his truck with a buddy who swung around at my approach. I apologized for startling him, he said," I wasn't startled, I got my gun right here." I smiled and said he had me at a disadvantage as I was unarmed. After being sure I didn't work for the government, they let me paint there.



Another morning, I did this farm, my most blatant attempt at trying to do a typical painting that I assumed was expected by the typical collector at this kind of event, in this town, for this kind of show.





One two separate afternoons I tackled a larger, more ambitious version of the Sunset Drive in (at sunset) thinking it would be my big show piece, but in the end it ended up as a back up as I didn't care for it as much, to much mush painting where I felt lost and off my game.




Finally on d- day Friday, I went to the SLO train station and tried another big painting starting early I worked really hard and felt that I had pulled it off. Everyone at the station was nice to me from the stationmaster to the engineers to people who came by. I almost sold the painting on the spot. Buoyed by the positive feedback, I knew I had done about the best I could do under the circumstances, if I was going to win, this one would be the one. I only have a photo of it,I will post it on the next entry.

They tried something new this year, a collector's preview night where collectors had to pay $100 to get first shot at our paintings. I entered the smaller inside sunset driven- in for my Modern side, the Farm painting for tradition and the Train painting as something in the middle. We mixed up the times and got there too early, but were recruited to help with last minute posting of titles and that was kind of fun.
First came the awards judged by two very nice collectors who liked traditional tight work except for one wacky fun choice.
That left me in the dust, but I rationalized to myself I hadn't really expected to win on my first try anyway. I received lots of compliments for other artists, about the Drive in painting and the train, but the auction went slow, the paintings with awards did well, but frankly the rest of us with a few exceptions heard the crickets. I was told this was an experiment, that tomorrow the quick draw auction always did well and the "regular" auction would bring out the rest of the collectors. I tried to ignore my negative thoughts and think positive. Tomorrow would be bettr... right?