The Iowa State Fair is the highlight of every summer in Iowa, showcasing the best of Iowa on the beautiful historic fairgrounds in Des Moines. The 100th birthday of the butter cow was celebrated in 2011. Be sure not to miss the fair!

Included in this painting: the beautiful fairgrounds and the many outstanding buildings, tractor pull at the Grandstand, the big wheel race for children, people movers, farm animals, a butter cow is sculpted out of flowers in the flower bed in front of Little Hands on the Farm, a family reunion all with matching colored shirts, a crying 4-H winner who must part with his blue ribbon pet steer, the two Sky Gliders, and much more fun. In my research for this painting, I found out that a lot of kissing happens at the fair. All this is set in front of the Des Moines skyline with nightly fireworks.

Thank you to my special State Fair Experts: Rhonda Holeton who is pictured with her family camping in the NE camping area, Andrea Balmer (she and Jim are cheering for her sister Mary Borg who posed), and Carol and Daryl Funk who are kissing at Ye Old Mill.
And a special thank you to these who have posed: Kevin Book is winning the tractor pull, with his family cheering him, Dave and Julee Darner are having their first kiss at the grain bin in the implement area, my Katie and Jill are on the camel ride, Jon and Marcia Kinzenbaw are under the Kinze banner, Rod and Deb Zeitler are carefully carrying Rod’s latest jam entry into the Elwell Building, Mary Borg is Morgan pleasure driving, Linda Leu’s folks are standing in front of their RV, and the nice man who drove me around on the golf cart at the fairgrounds one day and gave me many tips is also included driving the cart.