Art Fair

My latest travel took me to an art fair in Canton, Georgia. Beautiful little town in North Georgia. It's located about an hour outside Atlanta and worth the drive if you like small town USA. I sure do.

The visit started with a very nice surprise, free covered parking. That never happens in the Atlanta area. Luckily I wasn't in the Atlanta area. The day promised to be sunny and warm so the parking was great. It's always nice to return to a cool car rather than a furnace.

The first thing on the list to do in Canton was to find the pizza place for a quick lunch. After some minor wandering we found the restaurant and the 'Closed' sign in the window. How does a pizza place go under? Our second choice was a bookstore offering lunch just a couple of doors away.

The lunch offerings at the bookstore were very down-to-Earth, simple sandwiches and sides, nothing too fancy which worked out fine. As we ate lots of various people came through looking for books, kids playing and those on their way to the back of the store. I always enjoy the locals when I travel. They are, after all, what gives a place it's flavor and color.

On to the art fair! The fair was located a block off the main drag in the downtown area. On the way we say beautiful old homes and buildings with faded advertising just aching to be photographed. The fair was located in a small park which normally serves as a local greenspace. One of the best things I can say about the venue is the park was almost entirely shaded by Willow Oaks. How wonderful is that on a sunny, hot afternoon? The vendors tents/booths were scattered in clusters throughout the park in a rough order. We spent the afternoon looking at many kinds of art. There were vendors of ceramics, watercolors, photography and much more. One of the more notable booths sold photographic art, specifically HDR photography. For those that don't know, HDR, High Dynamic Range, photographs are photos that are extremely sharp and show a high degree of detail. You've undoubtedly seen HDR's but haven't realized it. This booth was of particular interest to the friend I was with as he owns the website bluestarphotos.smugmug.com where he sells his own mix of HDR and standard photography. We found this vendors work to be quite nice and the prices very reasonable. We talked to the artist for awhile as we enjoyed looking at his work.

Moving on we spoke to other artists about their work, often stopping longer at the photography booths. We found one artist who displayed many, nicely framed photos of nature scenes shot in the Southeast. We spent a good while talking to the artist sharing some laughs about how 'tough' it is to go out and photograph beautiful scenes. His thoughts on the matter, "It's tough work but somebody has to do it!" Agreed.

We passed one tent where an older gentleman was speaking to a group of people seated before him. He was talking about a book he had written and the experiences he had while writing it. As we passed around behind him on the way to more booths I heard him tell the crowd "...and it's hard to be a Southern writer having not come from a dysfunctional family". I think he nailed that one!

As we moved on the heat began to win the day. We checked out a few more booths and decided to wander back to the car. On the way, my cohort stopped to take a few pics of the faded buildings and a few test shots. Hopefully they all came out OK for him.

The day turned out to be a bit better than expected as the covered parking and shaded venue were a big plus. On the way home we talked about what we had seen, the booth structures and the artists we had talked to. It had certainly turned out to be a good day and a lot of fun enjoying the artwork on display.