When I go to farmer’s markets or bazaars I like to keep myself busy. If it’s a busy market, I don’t have to do much else except talk to people and sell products. But if it’s a slow market, as some of them are, I like to have a few things to do to stay busy.

Every market I try to bring my painting stuff. This not only keeps me busy when it’s slow, I have also discovered that it draws more people in to my booth to visit about art. They don’t always buy something, but that’s ok, it’s nice to answer questions and hear about other’s journey’s in art, and their progress.

Today I thought I’d share a couple of the fun pieces I’ve painted at markets recently. These are in no way finished painting. Most often they are just sketches or practice piece from pictures I like, to see if I want to paint a bigger, more finished piece.

First, my setup. I have a Pochade Box by u.go for plein air painting. I love this box. It is slightly heavier than some, but the base is magnetic around the perimeter so that it holds my paint palette, which is metal, securely to the box. I move my setup back and forth in my booth all the time to allow for customers to watch, or move it out of the way, and the paints never fall off. The clips on the upper half hold my notebooks that I use at the markets. The white bottom half is waterproof and is perfect for mixing my paints, although I go back and forth between just using my paint box and my white palette base on the box. This all folds flat for easy transport. The base of the box has a little built in nut to receive the small bolt on my tripod stand, which is how I support the box. The only thing I’m still looking for is a cup that is magnetic because the clip on that little one pictured isn’t big enough to hook on to anything and it slides all over.

The painting pictured here is from my trip to Seward that I wrote about here. When I’m out traveling with groups, I rarely take my paint stuff. But I always have my phone camera to take lots of pictures. There’s always something inspiring out there to paint.

When I plein air paint, particularly at the markets, the finished product sometimes leaves a lot to be desired as it seems like there are enough interruptions (I don’t mind them), that paint dries quicker than I want, washes tend to dry at different rates leaving weird lines in my paintings, or funny blooms where I wouldn’t want them in a finished piece, etc. That’s why there are very rare masterpieces at markets. This one I really enjoyed however, and I may actually make a bigger, more finished piece later on this summer or fall.

This next painting I did on the 4th of July. We still did a shortened market after our local parade. There were lots of people wandering, but few buyers. This gave me plenty of time to find the perfect picture, draw it out, and paint it at the market that day. This particular picture I had wanted to try my hand at for several weeks leading up to the 4th, so I was grateful to have time to try it out and really do like the finished painting on this one as well.

I love this country that we live in and I am so grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy here in the United States of America. I am so grateful for the men and women who have fought for my freedom, and especially grateful for those who have died for our freedom. This one I may also paint in a more finished piece, sometime before next 4th of July hopefully! I like this painting, but didn’t have as deep of a blue that I think it needed to be more accurate.

Painting while people are watching can be intimidating, but I have found that people just really like to watch the process, there is no judgement as they observe, just enjoyment and some wonder and awe. Not because I’m the best painter ever, but it’s always fun to see a flat sheet of paper turned into a fun piece of art right before your eyes. I enjoy watching others paint as well!

We have a number of more markets before this summer season is over, and I hope to continue to get to paint at each one. If you’re near Sheep Creek Lodge just 20 miles north of Willow on a Thursday, or Willow Community Center on a Friday, stop by and say hi, I would love to see you!