Apple Festival at Portland Nursery

Great crowds of people and families with children descended on Portland Nursery to taste, shop and enjoy all things Apple.
Along with the three other sketchers I was positioned to sketch to very long line of people in the tasting line. We weren't even close to the tasting tables and still the people waited and gathered!

watercolor and ink

watercolor and ink

After a while I had had enough of the people sketching and sought out some structure to sketch.

watercolor and ink

It was a grand day and the sun came out at times to give us some of its warmth....a very good sketching day with Katura, Vicky, and Andrea!

Sketches from Apple Fest

I had never been to the big apple tasting festival at Portland Nursery before. What a great community party! Steady flow of families pouring in for apples, pears, pumpkins, cider, streudel, music, all of the fun.

Giant apple balloon over the festival tent

Once the baby finally tuckered herself out (thumping on hay bales, chasing puppies, and trying to climb onto all the garden carts), I joined the little trio of urban sketching friends and whipped out a few small sketches during her nap.

It was the actual crates of apples, the large wooden boxes that are moved in by nimble forklifts, full of sweet colorful crunchy goodness, that most caught my eye.

The grain of the wood, the cracks from long use, the tough metal hardware that reinforces each corner. How many years apple festivals have each of these crates seen? Such unique character in each individual box.

Apple Festival

The several of us sketchers who showed up at the Portland Nursery's Apple Tasting Festival this morning kind of lucked out on the weather while we were there. A good crowd of people were busy buying, tasting, eating streudel & toffee apples and otherwise partaking of the activities offered.

I tried to set myself up and out of the way but it was hard to find that sweet spot!

Had a good time though with so many options to sketch. After a good sharing session I headed home to rain and hail!