Back for two days and leaving for Montana tomorrow for the OPA national show opening weekend. I’ll try to blog while I’m there since there are a variety of interesting sessions planned.

I really enjoyed the show in Walnut Creek overall. Sales weren’t good, though. Wallets are locked down. I watched people pick out a $3 card and then put it back. This in a town where it seemed like every other car on the street was a Porsche or a Lexus. And it was hot. Even the locals were whining a little. The temperatures hit 80F+ on Saturday and Sunday. I did have some potential buyers come by, so I think that the show will be well worth doing for the next couple of years, at least. I saved money by staying at the Residence Inn in Pleasant Hill and buying my food at the local Whole Foods store. It was nice to go back to the room and kick back without having to figure out where to go for dinner on a weekend night.

My neighbor artists were great. Both use glass as their media of choice. Kevin (www.kevinmark.com) makes fabulous one-off pieces of jewelry and Chris (www.studiozayante.com) makes vases, cups and cool glass pumpkins in a variety of colors. Never seen a cobalt blue pumpkin before, but I liked it.

The main action was on Main Street. I was one street over on Locust on a corner space with a nice shade tree. As is usually the case, there was an ebb and flow of people, so I did some sketching. Haven’t done this kind of thing in a long time, so it was good practice. Here are the four unedited pages that I did. Maybe it will encourage you to try it. None of them took more than a few minutes at most.