Photos: Eric Fitzpatrick Quick on the Draw

Eric Fitzpatrick fills in this view of the Woods vegetable stand on City Market this morning.

Roanoke's most celebrated artist (and easily its nicest), Eric Fitzpatrick, was on City Market this morning doing some preliminary work for a painting he will give away.

This will be a market painting to be donated to Blue Ridge Public TV for its fund-raiser, coming soon. He will also have a painting of the Texas Tavern on the auction block to benefit the station.

Eric says he generally visits a site several times to do what he's doing here before he sets the painting in stone--so to speak. What he's doing here is promising. I shop buy vegetables at Woods all the time. Good place and in a prominent setting on the market: out front.