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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Bele Chere Festival, Asheville, North Carolina

Ron took me to the Bele Chere Festival last weekend. It was a surprise, and very welcomed! We spent most of the day Friday wandering around and looking at the booths, checking out the art both on the street and in the galleries, and people watching. People watching was probably the most fun part of it. We sat down at a local establishment next to one of the misting stations they had set up and really saw some interesting characters.

The beer vendor was one of my favorites - normal looking fellow - obviously a transplant from a northern US city - Gitcha Beah Heah was his cry - over and over and over again. If he had been from the southern US it would have sounded more like - Gitcher Bee-yer Hee-yer. Of course, at the prices (especially considering the brand), I can't imagine why anyone would have been buying from him.

We saw a lot of colorful hairstyles and clothing - and lack of clothing... The man we dubbed "Moss Man" was an enigma. If you click the photo, you can read all about him. Really not sure what that was all about.

The accordian player was precious - much more so than in my sketch. Click the pic and you can go over to my flickr site and see how cute she really was.

Saw a couple of notable artists - One was Larry Smith - had a real Van Gogh influence, Daniel Smith - check out Chickzilla, and then buy it for me for my birthday :-) and Jeremy Graves, to name a few. It was very inspiring.

I sketched the beer man and the Jackson building while I was there - the other two from my photos. I wanted to do everything from life, but dang, people move alot. Buidlings are much easier - even considering the perspective problems I have...

superfine Pitt pen and watercolor in Large Moleskine sketchbook

2 comments:

  1. GREAT drawings! I know you had a great time at the festival -- I always forget about it until the next week when people say things like, "I was at the Bele Chere festival last weekend and ..."
    :-D Wonderful spellings of the dialect / accent comparisons, too -- I could hee-yar them re-yul guuud.

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  2. Gosh, I am so jealous I didn't make it to Bele Chere this year! Your drawings are really indicative of the atmosphere of the place. There are no shortage of colorful characters to draw at this event! Nice job.

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