Kerchman County Fair

“The Carnival”

While exhibiting at an Art Show near Orlando, Florida over fifteen years ago, I was approached by a lady, who was impressed by my paintings and asked if I would be interested in painting a picture for her.  That doesn’t sound so, “out of the ordinary”, but then she gave me the details.

She worked for a company, that has a picnic every year about the same time and needed a painting that represented the event, for their poster.  Here’s the deal…..Every year, artists submit a picture for competition and the one that is chosen will receive a cash award.  They would keep the painting and print 1000 limited edition prints, from the painting and the artist could keep the overruns.

The same artist had won 3 years in a row. I was shown the paintings that had won previously, some watercolor, others were a pastel, pen and ink and colored pencil and they were all very good. I was given a deadline to present the picture, so they could compare it against the other entries.  The winning artist would then make corrections, as needed and return the winning piece. She gave me some photographs of the event from previous years to use as a reference.

After presenting the painting, it was chosen as was, with no changes.  I heard later that there was another artist, who was upset because he didn’t win.  He was counting on the prize money.