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These Connecticut shows take place on consecutive weekends, and both involve Saturday-morning set-ups, which I despise. This year, that was about the only similarity between them.

I'm a repesentational oil painter with pieces ranging from 10 inches by 10 inches and $100 to 48x72 and $5500. I paint with a palette knife, and my pieces are bright and heavily textured.

The Mystic show is a big one, stretching down the main street in town and along a few side streets. The Mystic River divides the town and the show. Traffic continues on the main street during the show, and a drawbridge in the middle of town stops traffic throughout the show.

Booths are $270. On the east side of the river, in the commercial area, the tents are cheek to jowl, facing the sidewalk and stores. On much of the west side, the tents are also cheek to jowl, facing a narrow sidewalk and a hedge.

I was living near Mystic when I got into the Mystic show for the first year. The person who decided the layout was my neighbor, and gave me an excellent spot, on a corner of a side street closed to traffic, with enough room to hang paintings outside as well as in. If you do Mystic, you might ask to be on one of the side streets. They have a little less traffic, but they won't have a crush of people so big they push would-be buyers right past your tent. 

A side note: A number of businesses in town rent their parking lots to artists and crafters. These areas are not part of the Mystic show, but patrons don't know that. This can make for some odd inclusions, including some buy-sell. But if you're in one of these spots, you can generally set up Friday night. And you get all the traffic of the show as a whole. A friend did this this year; the booth fee was higher than the show fee, but was still reasonable, and she did well.

In most of the booths in the formal show, there is no storage space. Parking is an absolute nightmare. I rented space from a merchant near my booth, and that was $50 very well spent. There are pay lots to support local nonprofits, but barely any street parking, and most spots will be a long hike from your booth.

The show is put on by the Mystic Chamber, and I think they do a fair amount of advertising; the show is generally very well attended. This year, the crowd seemed smaller than average, but there were still plenty of people - including AFIer Greg Little and his wife Carol, in Connecticut from their home in Louisiana! It took me a moment to comprehend what I was seeing, but then I remembered that Carol grew up in New London, as did I.

The Chamber supplies volunteers, and this year, they were very helpful during set-up. I didn't see anyone available for booth-sitting, but I had friends nearby and really didn't need a booth-sitter. There is an awards breakfast, which is usually bagels and coffee, but I didn't make it this year. 

Usually, the quality of the show is pretty good. This year, the little I saw of it, the quality of the work seemed to be down. I saw a lot of the same thing, and saw a number of booths with work that just did not seem well done. On the other hand, the high-end stuff seemed better and more interesting than ever.

I sold two large paintings - one to friends who'd been wanting to buy another of my paintings for a while - and three small paintings, for a total of about $4000. This is a very good show for me, and I was pleased. 

AFIers, Greg and Carol Little in Mystic

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SoNo, in South Norwalk, has been a solid show over the past five years that I've done it. It's in a funky, artsy neighborhood of a town near the NY border. It has always featured excellent art, and has been well-organized and well-attended. 

This year, it was so disorganized that I became convinced that it wouldn't happen. The call to artists included a quite unclear sentence intimating that if you'd been in the show in any of the past three years, you were in this year. But there was never a response to my application. I had no response when I sent in my booth fee, either, though I sent emails to various people, until I messaged the show on Facebook.

The SoNo Arts webpage did not work. There was never a list of artists or vendors, and there were never directions to the show. The call to artists stayed up during the show. We received our booth numbers after midnight on Saturday morning, and even then, no location was provided. We left my friend's house at 5 a.m., arrived at 6 and were told by an artist that if we were in the show last year, we should just go to wherever we were, and set up then. 

The show was at least 50 percent smaller than it had been, and the quality was just gone. There were many, many vendors, selling olive oil and popcorn, "this way to the beach" signs, and more. I saw one ceramist, and only two jewelers! 

With so many fewer participants, load-in and load-out was easy. The booths faced the street, which was closed, and there was tons of storage behind my tent. (I had a Dollar Store and methadone clinic behind me, just FYI). I lucked out and got a space with shade, but people on the other side of the street were in blazing sun the entire time. Parking is easy, in a large municipal lot near much of the show. You have to pay, but it's $7 a day. 

I do not do well with uncertainty, and as the show started, I was nearly apoplectic. I would never ever do this show again, I said, unless my biggest painting sold. Unless I had a killer show. 

And, you guessed it, I had a killer show. Well, I had a killer Sunday. By the end of Saturday, I'd sold only two $100 pieces, and I felt happy to have done that. I was nowhere near the $350 booth fee, but I felt lucky to have not had a zero show. Then on Sunday, a woman walked in and bought my three biggest paintings. And I had several other sales, as well. 

So instead of continuing to grouse and complain about SoNo, I'm going to contact the organizers and see what I can do to help. 

greg and carol little mystic.jpg