"Affordable" Art Fair at Battersea Park

(Just linked this up to Becoming A SAHM's "Creative Challenge" linky)
<div align="center"><a href="http://becomingastayathomemum.com/category/playtime-blogs/creative-challenge/" title="Creative Challenge"><img src="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c325/cazzabella2304/CCbadgesmall_zps32623a4b.jpg" alt="Creative Challenge" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Yesterday the husband took most of the day off, so we could all walk down to Battersea to look at some art.  We are in the market for a painting to hang above the fireplace in our front room, and this fair promised 1000s of pieces between £40 and £4000.  As ever, though, most works tended towards the higher end of that range - so not sure how affordable they can claim to be!   Is there a "Dirt Cheap Art Fair" somewhere, as that would clearly be our market!!

Anyway first things first - coffee and a brief perusal of the free map and guide:

This is a well-oiled machine.  Thronging with people of all ages (despite it being a weekday morning - doesn't anyone have jobs?!?), coffee shops and wine stands dotted around the cavernous event space, packing facilities for shipping your purchases home - even a crèche facility for those unlikely to appreciate the art!  The boy was sadly just a few months too young for the crèche, so he was subjected to massive sensory overload in the hall - running from piece to piece, every square inch of the walls covered in colours and textures and shapes, and lots of interesting sculptures (or "sensory play equipment" in the boy's mind) dotted around the floor.  Frankly it was a miracle we didn't have to pay any of the exhibitors for damages!

Here are a few of the things which caught our collective eye:

Loved this series of paintings - of popular sweets and cakes, including also Polos and scones.  Very vivid!

(Don't worry, we had permission from the exhibitor for the boy to go ahead and touch this very colourful one!)

We love penguins in our house - this one was quite tempting!

"What does the massive scary cow say???" 

This was a huge blown-up photograph that I would have sworn was an oil painting!

Finally - I indignantly wondered why was anyone hanging up blouses and calling it Art?! Then I had a closer look and realised that they were incredibly realistic Carrera marble sculptures!  Amazing.

But by this point the boy was becoming more and more of a liability - so we headed off into the park, to make the most of the sunshine.  Who needs to spend £4000 on art when we can all enjoy this for free?!

Happy weekend everyone!