Painting for the Oregon Country Fair – part 3

During the process of working out what needed to be painted on the Stewardship and Sustainability banner for the Oregon Country Fair, a new banner was introduced into the equation. The Garden Crew was tagged to be celebrated this year, so a banner was created and printed with the hopes I’d be able to paint another different garden scene upon it before the fair. Once the banner was delivered to the sign barn, and grommets had been installed, it was time to work out a new drawing, transfer it and start painting.

These are not large paintings, but they took a long time to finish — mainly because we were working in an open air barn. The temperatures outside were in the 90’s most of the time except for the last day before the fair when it stayed in the lower 80’s. Acrylic paints dry fast in a normal, indoor environment, but when it’s that warm, they occasionally dry before I’ve moved from palette to banner! Add in a constant stream of folks curious about what goes on at the sign barn, questions from young sign painters, people that just want to chat, and my own curiosity and inability to focus, I was mixing and remixing colors constantly and having to soak dry paint out of a just loaded brush continually! Spontaneous dancing in my studio at home while I’m working? Not likely (unless someone sweeps me off my feet…) Hello distractions!

Fortunately, the speed in which I’m able to work there seems to satisfy the needs of the OCF folk. I’m very grateful for their patience and understanding!

Once I was finished with my painting on the new banner, it was time for title lettering. Justin Riede, Portland sign artist extraordinaire, stepped in to do this since he’d also lettered the Stewardship and Sustainability sign.

While he worked on that, I took a break to photograph some other painting going on in the barn. Brad (a fabulous Corvallis sign artist) was working on the White Bird sign, having finished the new Info sign earlier. These signs needed to follow a previous format – especially the Info sign, so they’d be recognizable throughout the fair.

Eliza had moved on from painting cart numbers to larger signs and was putting some finishing touches on her second External Security sign.

Here’s a close up detail of the garden banner, title finished, veggies painted and ready to be installed in the fair, which was opening the next day.

Stay tuned for some photos of our camp, the banners and signs installed in the fair, and the miracle ride that appeared with perfect timing, coming up in “chapter 4”.