It is hard to believe that  a week has passed since the CLA Game Fair. I must say that the event this year was massive and many people I met walking the show grounds were complaining about the heat, particularly  on Friday. Temperatures on the Friday nearly  reached 28 degrees. I do not think that the organizers could do anything about the heat though! 

I was awoken at four o clock Saturday morning  by thunder and lightening. The storm lasted until half six and was pretty impressive. I did not hear much of it though as I was dead tired and slept through most of it! It rained heavily but by dawn it had lightened off to showers and the day was largely dry.  I was glad that it was reasonably dry by the time it came to cook my porridge at six am!

The show ground did get a small bit muddy with a few afternoon downpours  but the sun quickly dried up the worst puddles. The crowds were excellent and I spoke to people from many European countries who had made the trip especially for the fair. I met a few familiar faces from home as well.

I must thank Edward Hasell McCosh and his good wife Sarah for keeping an eye on my stand when I had to leave it a few times. Edward is an artist and paints wonderful oils in the style of the old Dutch masters. His wife Sarah was delightful company  and we had some great laughs.

Sunday was a lovely day weather wise , not too warm. I had a nice few sales on the Sunday much to my surprise because the previous days are normally the better days. It was nice to make some sales to people who bought from me last year. I also made some good marketing connections and got some wise advice from other artists as well.

Even though the show was tiring  as I was on my own it was also very encouraging to get positive feedback of my work. 

On my return journey to the ferry in Holyhead I dropped into the Charles Tunnicliffe Gallery in the town of LLangefni on Anglesey.It is called theOriel Ynys Mons in Welsh.There is a permanent display of some of his artwork in the gallery and as he was one of the artists whose work inspired me as a young boy I really enjoyed examining his work in detail. The staff also turn a page of one of his sketchbooks every day and the page that was on display when I dropped in contained watercolour drawing of adders. They also had some of his painting equipment on display, and I wondered as I looked at it  how many times the great painters hands must have handled it. It is sad that he is not with us any more as I would have loved to meet him and ask a few questions. A quick bite of lunch and on to the ferry . The journey home was uneventful thank God.