Yesterfest Review, Sketches for Hunt 402, Photos and Art Links

"They" advise to keep your blog to one subject, not make the posts too long and post on a regular schedule.  That advice just goes over my head.  I cannot seem to keep with that format.  Those of you that keep reading my blog must be OK with my ramblings!

I feel obligated to tell about Yesterfest, I have new sketches, too.  Oh and also some art links, so get a cup of Jo (should be cup o' Joe, right) and read on.....

Saturday was Yesterfest here in downtown Bastrop.  It has changed over the years but is a popular day for folks to be out and about and see some new "old" things.  I think it started as a fundraiser for the Opera House.  Different organizations built and set up old time buildings and demonstrations down at Fisherman's Park. 

The Bastrop Fine Arts Guild joined one year by building an old store front with a big tent on the back where we exhibited paintings for sale. That year, we, artists,  painted a scene of downtown Bastrop about 1920 or so. We sold that and made seed money for our group.   We provided mat board and acrylic paints for the kids to paint on for free.  No one expected to see art at the event so we didn't sell much but we started a tradition.

Now art is a big part of the event.  Yesterfest was moved to town, Main Street,  a few years ago and is very spread out with music, dancing, story telling, booths with demos and more.  It also coincides with Market Days which has arts and craft vendors on Pine Street.  The Opera House has a play or two. 

This year I decided to paint in front of Art Connections Gallery where I have my pastel paintings exhibited.  It was a warm day, but nice in the shade.  I could hear the music on one hand and the story telling on the other.  I was able to visit with some friends and made some new friends, too.

This is me painting with my pastels.   The people in front of me were at Hershel Hill's table.  He is the author of "Hick From the Sticks" and a couple of other books.  You can find his books at Art Connections, too.  He is Deborah's father.  Interesting stories.

The two paintings I worked on.  The road is near our house.  The geraniums were sitting on one of the tables at Art Connections.  It only had one bloom, but artistic licence you know.

A couple of the gunslingers.

Some of the buffalo soldiers.

A seamstress sewing on a "portable" Singer sewing machine with no foot pedals, only a hand crank.  I had never seen one of those.  I have a hard enough time sewing with both hands free to guide the cloth.  Back in those days it must have been wonderful to not have to everything with a needle and thread by hand.

Gene, Jennie and our newest grand-dog, Chewbacca.  He is a mess and so cute.  Joanna was in Bastrop, too, but no photo.  It was nice of them to come out and hang with the old folks.

 Gene and I close to my painting set up.

And Gene on his Terratrike.

It always brings back memories to take part in community gatherings.  Most of them are good.  Ha.

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I sketched for Scavenger Hunt 402 this morning.  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1377839  I was going to sit on the porch, but decided to sketch at the dining table so I wouldn't have to drag the models outside.  I sketched in the large sketchbook and used most of a page.  I sketched with a Micron 01 and added colored pencils to brighten it up for a change of pace.

Number 10, a still life with items that start with A, B, C, D and E - Apple, Banana, Cup, Doll and Egg.  The apple and banana are too small for the doll, cup and egg.  What can I say?

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When I mentioned that our kids come to hang out with us and check up on us, too, it reminded me of Bag Blog.  She is one of the "kids" dealing with aging parents.  I told her that  we are now past that part of our life and are the aging parents.  It is hard to adjust to in both cases.  Bag Blog is Lou Baggett and we have become great friends and painting buddies over the years.  We met through blogging and decided we had so much in common that we must be related.

Our husbands, Toby and Gene, also get along very well.  We have had some good times together.  A few are documented on my blog.  If you put Lou Baggett in the search box above it will give you results like this  http://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Lou+Baggett

Lou, Jo, Gene and Toby last summer in Taos.

You can check out Lou's art on her website  and blog:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/lou-baggett.html
http://bagwag.blogspot.com/

They have an amazing family and we are lucky to have met them.  I hope we see them soon.

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Some of you may know or know about Qiang Huang.  He is primarily an oil painter.  He works very hard at his art and is an inspiration.  I met him at a plein air event in Austin a few years ago.  He is very talented and shares his beautiful paintings with stories of his ups and downs with learning and improving.  If you can take a workshop with him you are bound to learn so much.  He is taking a group to China this fall.  If you can't do that, follow his blog and learn and admire with me.  He will be presenting the program/demo at the Central Texas Pastel meeting in Georgetown, Texas, in May.  I hope I can go.  The closest I get to a workshop is to buy his calendar every year and see his work every day on my desk.  I follow his blog and this post made me smile today.

http://qiang-huang.blogspot.com/2015/04/demo-at-montreal-2015-3.html