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The Iowa State Fair!

The Art Fair,
featuring Iowa Artists

2024 • August 8 through 18 at a NEW LOCATION at the Fair:

in the Courtyard of the Cultural Center

(at the BOTTOM of the hill up to Grandfather’s Barn)!

State Fair 2023

Back again for the third year at the outdoor Art Fair by Grandfather’s Barn at the Iowa State Fair, I spend another 11 days with talented artists and fabulous fair-goers who were brave and courageous to climb the hill to walk along the art-filled side walk! The weather hit highs and lows but failed to dampen any spirits. One of my most treasured memories I’ve tucked away is the return of a young artist looking for me : “The Nuthatch Lady!”

Browse below a gallery of a few of my2023 art-making at the fair: (COMING SOON…)

Sidewalk Artist at the Iowa State Fair 2022

This is my second year at the Iowa State Fair! Soaking up all the fresh air, the camaraderie, and the time to paint beneath the trees is a privilege deeply cherished. Seeing folks and having light-hearted conversations throughout the days brings a joy of its own. My art is simple and starts from everyday things that strike a tune in my heart. It fits the atmosphere of the fair: a celebration of the everyday and its opportunities for worthwhile work and effort. This year I have been exploring Haiku and adding those words to paintings; capturing brief but significant moments in time. Browse my galleries here for samples of my work, my joy.

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Inspired by and created for the Iowa State Fair!

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My current exploration in 2022 : capturing moments with a bit of
Ink Watercolor, and Haiku

The challenge to put into 17 syllables in a pattern of three lines (5-7-5) a brief period of time and season that profoundly moved me is as poetic as the Haiku poem itself. Pairing those chosen words and their funky calligraphic form and arrangement, with a small ink drawing splashed with watercolor paint completed and complemented the challenge. Walk through my garden of homegrown Haiku’s and their painted accomplices; perhaps your heart will be squeezed as well.

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All art-making is learned. Period.

— Nicholas Wilton

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Some of the outflow from priming the art-for-art’s-sake pump in 2021:

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Scrappy Art is the result of playing with the paint splotches on the pieces of paper used to test colors. Sometimes images just pop out; sometimes it takes some imagination! Happy Scrappy…