Ethnic Fest in Kansas City

So we decided to head out to the Ethnic Festival held at swope park in Kansas City. Its an annual event and everyone is excited about trying food from different countries. I believe there were more than 40 booths. Each representing a country sharing their authentic food with others.

Here is the entrance as we approached the entrance.


There were flags so of course I would find my country's flag and take a picture.


My sweetie walking towards the event as I messed around with the camera.


Heres just a view of the crowd from inside. There you will not only find food but performances all day long entertaining the crowd.


We wasted no time but walking around sampling food from different countries. We tried Indian first. Sadly we skipped Malaysia since we had Malaysian food this summer in Malaysia.


Heres Mexico. Its odd that the booths that I took pictures of, we didn't try. Well we had mexican food not too long ago. So we tried food from Laos, Philippines, Jamaica and sweden,....


Approaching another booth.


Here we are at Greece. Those of friends of Steph and I. Peter whom I am friends with at Tango class and Theo whom I just met. Both are great people. We had some dolmas (grape leaf wraps) and spinach pies. They were delicious.


What should we have next.


We are almost full and happy.

Broadway Bridge

On my way home from dropping off a painting at the gallery, I decided to stop at this place just by the bank of missouri river underneath Broadway Bridge. This is one of few ways I cross the bridge to get to the city from my apartment North of the river.
The broadway bridge opened thru traffic on Sept. 1956. This bridge used to be a toll bridge until 1991. It replaced the Hannibal Bridge that was once a two level bridge where motor vehicles operated on one and trains on the bottom level.

Driving Around

This evening, my great friend Paul and I drove around to find some inspiring places of Kansas City for me to paint. Here are some great shots I took with my new Nikon D40.

First, we went to vantage point where an old round house in the foreground can be seen.


Perfect timing! Sunset on some railway tracks. It took some climbing to get where I was standing.


Finally, a great shot of Kansas City Downtown at night. I wish i had a tripod but I was able to get a great shot just by resting the camera on the railing.

Progress.

Well, 5 days later and after many many layers of thick oil paint,here is what i got so far.



Here is the next step.


As I have completed filling up the canvas with some paint as its' under painting, my next step is to figure out what other colors I would like on the bottom layer. I intend to build it up with layers of colors. There is usually about 4 to 5 layers of colors by the time i am done. The layers give my paintings its' texture.

First Painting after Trip!

This painting is my first for my next exhibition in October. I have been waiting for a great opportunity to paint figures in my paintings. I think you'll see many of them in this show. I believe figures naturally draw people in. Anyway this is the first step in to finishing this painting. I have just glazed it with some burnt sienna and turpentine.

I will reveal what this painting is for and what its about later. But for the most part, its pretty straightforward. For now i better get back to work. Deadline is on the 24th. I have 18 other canvases to fill by mid September. The race begins. I am READY!!!!