Sunday, September 16, 2012

Bluemont Fair 2012


I attended the Bluemont Fair on Saturday. Bluemont is a tiny town in the foothills of the Shenandoah Blue Ridge, which is usually peaceful and empty except for the fortunate folks who live there. It was supposed to be a resort town back in the late 1800s and there was a railroad that ran from Alexandria all the way to Bluemont so that vacationers from the humid, overheated Washington area could find some fresh air in the hills. The resort town never took off, though, and the railroad was eventually dismantled. Some stretches of its rail are now bike paths. Bluemont has a fair every September with crafts, vendors, food, music, historical exhibits, alpacas and fiber spinners, and some wine tastings offered by local vineyards. After this weekend the fair disappears and Bluemont returns to its quiet existence. 

The top drawing shows a wood-crafted playset and a vendor's canopy, as well as an elderly Spanish lady who was visiting with her family. The lower drawing shows the tent-topped bandstand, without the band, along with hay bales that the audience sat on. The man on the left of the lower drawing is not missing his arms, he just has them folded out of sight in front of him.
Pilot G2 pen on sketchbook pages, about 6" x 6" each.

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