I love country fair season. I think they're just so much fun! I love looking at the exhibits (especially photography, painting, and baking) to see what awesome things people come up with! One of my favorite fairs is the Durham fair, which started yesterday. It's only a few miles from our house, so a lot of the vendors there are from our town. This year I have gone to the North Haven & Durham fairs with another something in mind. I've made up my mind that I want to enter paintings in both of them next year. The Durham fair specifically has a category for Folk Art (how perfect!) and I wanted to see the entries from this year to see how mine matches up. Well... I don't know if I can effectively do that myself, since I'm sure I'm biased... so I'll let my readers be the judge. We looked 3 times and all we could find were the 2nd and 3rd place winners of the Folk Art category. I don't know where the 1st place winner was (kind of disappointed about that) but oh well, what can you do? Of course I took photos!
2nd Place
3rd Place
So what do you think? How does my New England Saltbox painting match up against these? Be honest here! I'm open for constructive criticism, because I really want to be able to compete next year!
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Also, I just had to get a souvenir. I saw this clock and loved it immediately. I think it ties in with our country decor, don't you?
I plan on starting my next painting tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it tomorrow night or Sunday. I'm trying to get faster, but I don't want to go too fast and cut corners.
I definitely think you can compete, and win! The biggest differences between the 2 paintings above and your paintings, are that they have more going on in them. It's kind of hard to explain. The 2nd place painting has a sailboat going by, birds flying in the air, possibly a pet or 2 on the bench? (I can't tell). The third place one has smoke coming out of the chimney, and a horse and carriage going by. Maybe in a future painting you should try to incorporate some more life into the painting. Just a suggestion...
ReplyDeleteEither way, love your paintings!!!
Your painting would be right up there for a prize! I do like seeing some animals, etc. in paintings. I happen to like the 3rd place painting better than the 2nd place painting, and I, too, was disappointed that we didn't see the 1st place. After seeing the gingerbread at the fair, I will definitely enter that category next year... maybe we can brainstorm some ideas when they announce the theme. You should keep up your paintings, your talent is amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhy not? Your painting of the New England salt box is very rich in color! You captured a warmth and coziness that made me wish I lived there:) I also liked the third place winner.
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