Update...

I realize I have not had a post since last Wednesday.
But tonight I will just recap and then tomorrow I will
be back on track. Since this weekend was my first
outdoor show of the the season I thought I would
share a bit of what goes into that.

We left home Friday morning at 8:30am. Put $100.
worth of gas in the van! Drove 4 1/2 hours to
Richmond, VA. Arrived around 1 and found my space.
You could not drive up to your space so I had to use
a dolly or carry my stuff. It was not too far, like the
length of a driveway. The canopy goes up first, side
covers, shade overhang and the weights. The weights
are 4 tubes filled with cement to keep the tent from
blowing over. Then the exhibit panels, feet to steady
them and covers. Then the paintings are brought in
and covered till morning. This took until 5:30pm.
We then drove 20 minutes to our campground. Set up
the popup. I am looking much more like a camping
pro now, but we were surrounded by tents this time so
I am feeling a tiny bit superior, at least we were not
on the ground! I made dogs on the grill.
By 8pm; tired, we went to bed! It was a long day.

Up on Saturday by 5:30 for breakfast and get to
the show by 7. We still had to hang painting and get
ready, it takes some work to make it look like its all
easy and your just hanging out having a good time!
The show opened at 10 and there were large crowds.
I demonstrated all day, handed out cards and sold a few
prints. Beautiful sunny day. The crowd seemed more
contemporary to me. I had my share of "great work"
but my sales were spotty. Demo'd all day till 6pm closing.
Then it takes an hour to take the painting down and
box and wrap them up. They were calling for storms
so I wrapped them with extra care, after all my whole
life is in those boxes. We left the show at 7pm, drove
back to the campsite dusty and tired. I made steaks
on the grill, cleaned up, showered and was in bed by 9!
This is very very early for us!!

Sunday is more of the same. Except up at 6:30, out at
the show by 8 to set up again. It never rained which
was good. Another beautiful day. My sales were better
today but still not great. Again, I painted all day and
talked to people. Sales were still much lower than they
should have been for me. But you never know where
things lead. An artist must always be optimistic! The
show was over at 5pm and now everything gets taken
down and carried back to the van which is parked farther
away because every one of the 450 artists/craftsman
wanted a close spot and unlike Friday when we all arrived
at different times, now we are all packing up and trying
to get out. We finished by 7 and its another gas stop of
$100. and then back to the campsite for a repeat of
the night before. We normally would have driven home
after the show but since we saved so much money by
camping we spent an extra night. Normally the rule is
under 5 hours away I drive home.

Today we were up by 7, and had the camper packed
up and on the road by 9 ~ 5 hours driving and home
by 2pm and I had to be at track practice at 3!! Linda
unpacked and did laundry. By the time I got back from
track it was 5:30, we had dinner, I mowed the lawn
and then its 8:30pm. I have no blog painting even
started so you will have to wait till tomorrow! But this
gives you a small idea of my weekend.