4th of July festivities

I hope everyone had a good and safe 4th. In our area we celebrate the 3rd & 4th. Our local pool/amusement park, Coney Island 
(http://coneyislandpark.com), has an event called BallonGlow on the 3rd. As you can see from the pictures, hot air balloons stay tethered so they can light up as the sky darkens. The park stays open later for fireworks.

The picture shows the hot air balloons peaking through the trees. My vantage point was from the parks front gate, where I was working, looking down the main road way. We close the road way when the parking lot fills so the patrons can get close to the lake where the fireworks were launched. It is a pretty neat event. To see more pictures of the balloons go to Coney's link.

Our outdoor concert venue, Riverbend (http://www.riverbend.org), is also attached to the park. On the 4th the Cincinnati Symphony  has a concert and fireworks.  So today is a day of rest after all the activity.

I have been working on finishing up the painting of Pop's Garden. I will sit on it for a week to see if I still think it is done.  As for the river view drawing in my last post...I am still drawing. I started it over because I want the perspective to be right.

Being technical is driving me crazy. So I am only working on it while I wait for the paint to dry on the painting I just finished and the one I have begun.

I started a painting of a little boy watching horses eat. I took this shot at another event we had at Coney Island called Paddlefest (http://paddlefest.org). This is a huge event for canoing and kayaking. There is a day of instruction on water safety; how to use a canoe/kayak, etc... There is a youth day where the city summer camps bring in kids to learn about water safety, get canoe rides, health, animals and information about the parks of Hamilton and Clermont County. The last day canoeists/kayakers either race or take a leisurely ride down the Ohio river to Sawyer Point (Downtown Cincinnati) where another day of festivities is set up. It is a lot of fun to watch.

At the youth day, Hamilton County parks brought in animals from one of their parks. I took this picture of this little boy being curious. I loved how he got down to see the horse eat while the Park Ranger was explaining how to feed the horse. Kids and horses...my two favorite subjects rolled into one :-)

I hope your weekend was as much fun as mine was.
Gaylynn