Jersey Girl
Found this pretty lady in the dairy barn at the Indiana State Fair. The barn has huge frosted windows along the...
Portrait of the Chicken as a Young Co...
This dashing young fellow looked like he was posing for a formal portrait, so I ignored his striking tail feathers...
Sideshow
“She has no arms, no legs, no bones in her body, yet she will talk to you and answer all of your...
Bronc Rider
The State Fair allows us to travel to other times, other places, offering glimpses of worlds we don’t often see....
Scrambled
Oh, dude, I feel your misery. There you sit, eyes shut and praying for your world to stop spinning so you can devote...
Farmall Tractors
Restored antique Farmall tractors on display at the...
Clockwise
Know how to find state fairgrounds on a satellite image? Look for the racetrack. Almost every state fairground...
When Ducks Gossip
When Gabby heard the news, she fainted dead away, her bill pointing skyward… The Duck Pond on the Midway is the...
Nothing But Nose
A sheep in a trailer inspects its new surroundings upon arrival at the Indiana State...
The Merry Jester
My favorite time to photograph an outdoor carousel is just before sunset. That’s when it comes to life, when it’s...
Candy Apple Reds
Candy apples in a window. Does anyone really eat these things? When I was a kid, the caramel ones were popular, but...
Morning Tram
It was the sunlight on her leg and foot that made me want to capture this image of a woman riding the tram around the...
Painting the State Fair
State Fair, USA is artist Lesley Spanos' tribute to the American agricultural fair. "Just about anything I would want to paint can be found at the Fair."
The series is the culmination of years of research. Spanos has photographed and sketched her local fair - the Indiana State Fair - extensively for the past four summers, amassing a large collection of reference material for working in-studio. Ultimately the collection is destined for a book and fine art reproductions. (Read about the project in more depth here.)
Want to know when new paintings are posted? Subscribe today and have new posts delivered to your email or reader!
Subscribe via email or reader