Festival of Trees Recap

The gala night for Festival of Trees was an overwhelming success. Tons of people, intimate atmosphere, excellent food, and fun live/silent bidding on auction items. The big item of the night was a painting by local artist Carl Groh, whose work can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery as well as the Smithsonian. He is also featured in the private collections of both Georgetown and Fordham Universities. The painting was really impressive in person and the image below does not do it justice. The painting sold for $20,000. I was out bid after $6K and knew I had no chance. However, making that one bid was pretty fun. I had my < 1 minute of fame as the mystery bidder dressed in all black in the back of the room.

Update: Here is a short on-line article about the event in our local newspaper.