WaterFest and ArtFest on a Rainy Saturday In Cornwall Ontario by Reg Coffey – August 12, 2012

Safety First

CFN – Imagine my surprise when I was driving down Second Street West today when I saw a bunch of tents on the south side of the road and cars parked all along the street. There seemed to be a lot of activity so I parked my car and walked over to find out what was going on. What I found was WaterFest and Cornwall ArtFest was happening right before my very eyes.

There were dragon boats ready to race, buskers busking and tents of artists displaying their art. Kids were swinging in the trees and their parents were eating hot dogs and hamburgers and slices of pizza. Now this is the right way to spend a Saturday in the summer. Everyone was having a good time.

The NAV Canada Dragons

Above you can see one of the dragon boat teams, The NAV Canada Dragons, posing in front of a boat.

There were a lot of kids present and kids being kids they find their own entertainment.

Kids will be Kids

Right about then it started raining and I thought I would check out some art under the big tent.

Who was the first artist that I see but our own Jacqueline Milner.

Jacqueline Milner

Jacqueline was busy creating hand drawn cards designed around your own signature.

Art by Sandra Taylor-Hedges

Right beside Jacqueline was Sandra Taylor-Hedges with her marvelous creations. I have an original Taylor-Hedges hanging on my walls. It depicts a coffee vendor at a farmer’s market.

I’m just going to display the pictures as I walked around the big tent. There were far too many conversations to write about and each artist was wonderful in their own right. I even was handed a bottle of water by Gilles Latour…Holy Gilles Latour!

Art by Patricia Campbell

 

Art by Tracy Davies
Norma O’Collin with hand painted greeting cards made with real flowers and leaves.

 

Art by Julia Rita Theriault from Stone Haven Studio
Kimberly Thompson from Right In My Own Backyard with designer buckets.

 

Kia Kortelainen (on the right picture with head turned) – multimedia artist. I think she was shy.

 

Tracey Doogan from Red Wind Studio is an artistic furniture refinisher. In her words the furniture has been “Restyled, Repurposed, Redefined”.

 

Nancy-Lee Michalek with Garden Paths, etc.

 

Amber Brown Graphic Drawings

I don’t think I got all of the artists in the big tent and I know I didn’t go around to all the smaller tents that were participating in the show. It was raining and I’m a wimp.

It’s WaterFest not SnowFest

Maybe the organizers were operating on a shoe string budget and they needed some signs to control parking, but I don’t think there was a lot of snow to shovel. The signs were very effective. No one parked on the street.

Coffeys Coffee

1 Comment

  1. It was a wonderful, family friendly event. Big shout out to all the volunteers and organizers.

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