Guest blogger Brad Ford Smith is a Dallas artist and arts conservationist.

I’m a sucker for art fairs. I’ll fly, drive, and even take DART to get to an art fair. I’ll forsake all other responsibilities to spend as many hours as possible immersed in the art fair experience. Today finds me up before sunrise, preparing myself for the 4 hour, white knuckle drive down Interstate 45 to get to the Houston fine Art Fair. (September 16-18, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston TX.)

HFAF has over 80 galleries, 2 form our own town of Dallas: Valley House Gallery and Galleri Urbane. 13 from around Texas. The national cities like New York, Chicago and LA fill the majority of slots, and there are also 13 international galleries. HFAF is the creation of the Hamptons Expo Group, who produce 3 other national art fairs. This is their first venture into Texas.

Perusing the exhibitor list, the roster appears to lean towards Latin American artists, heavy on landscapes and figurative painting. Some galleries, such as the Birnam Wood Gallery, deal in modern and contemporary art, buying and selling but not hosting a stable of artist of their own. I expect they will bring artwork by artists such as David Bates, Richard Serra and Donald Sultan.

And speaking of Donald Sultan , he will be at the fair speaking as part of the Houston Collectors Form Saturday at 11:30am.

I have 20 galleries on my personal Art and Seek list, such as the David Lusk Gallery, the Julie Nester Gallery and the Margaret Thatcher Project. Over all I expect to see lots of Beautiful paintings and a wide variety of paint handling. Hopefully I will learn about some new artists and see works by old masters like Stuart Davis and Philip Guston.  Of course being from Dallas, I won’t be able to prevent myself from comparing HFAF with our very own Dallas Art Fair,

Okay, just need to check the linseed oil in the car and I am off. Post more when I get back.