Victorian London takes weeks to set up at the Cow Palace in Daly City. On a cold day, I watched new shopfronts and sets being built and painted and older ones being assembled and touched up.
They all looked super-garish when I was there, but Gregory, who was painting away at Samira’s East India Cookery reminded me that the colors would look positively muted under the much dimmer lighting at the fair. They did, and what really struck a chord with me when I saw the final setup was how much of the attention to detail and finish was hidden by the mood lighting.And yet everyone at the fair worked hard at the details. Truly a labor of love.
I watched the Fezwig Warehouse sign go up at the big dance.
Nearby, one of 14 trees that are setup around the fair had last year’s “snow” pulled off it, fluffed up and freshened before going back on.
Every little detail in this huge, cavernous space gets set up: an empty corner outside the luggage depository gets a casual arrangement of baskets and trunks.
The Dickens Fair runs through this weekend. If you’ve never been, you can still visit.
So far in this series:
Behind the Scenes at the Dickens Fair: Scum, Sweeps andĀ Peelers
Behind the Scenes at the Dickens Fair: Costumes
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On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 7:30 PM Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook wrote:
> Suhita Shirodkar posted: “Victorian London takes weeks to set up at the > Cow Palace in Daly City. On a cold day, I watched new shopfronts and sets > being built and painted and older ones being assembled and touched up. They > all looked super-garish when I was there, but Gregory, w” >
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Love, love, love your sketches!
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You’ve captured the flavor and ambience of this amazing event. It’s one of the things I really miss about San Francisco.
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Love these!!
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You capture so much activity in these paintings. People at work, beautifully rendered.
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