Laguna Beach Art Festival
Perhaps the grandest Laguna Beach Art Festival is the award winning Festival of Arts, open each summer July through August. With 140 artists, crafts people and jewelers, this show is much more than a local affair. As a magnet for art connoisseurs from all over the world, the Festival's 80-year presence is a testament to the creative energy emanating from this historic seaside community.
While exhibitors (see descriptions below) live and work in or near Laguna Beach, the atmosphere is like an international marketplace for modern and contemporary art a venue for artists, art lovers and connoisseurs, seeking creative stimulation and camaraderie.
Here at the Laguna Beach Art Festival are paintings, sculpture, pastels, drawings, serigraphs, photographs, ceramics, jewelry, etched and stained glass, fiber arts and furniture. The setting is a six-acre park, gracefully nestled into Laguna Canyon, cooled by ocean breezes.
Laguna's Tradition
The founding of this Festival in 1932 (today, the longest running outdoor art fair in California) is linked to Laguna's tradition as an art community. (See Laguna Beach page for more information.) Many artists here work in "impressionist" styles, popular in Laguna Beach 100 years ago. But each artist is authentic in her/his technique - creating a wide variety of works in this classic art style.
With many paintings at this Laguna Beach Art Festival mirroring the deep canyons and eucalyptus trees just beyond the exhibition grounds, the artworks provide a look back to the natural countryside that inspired many early California Impressionist artists.
"With Laguna's legacy of creating 'California Impressionist' works, collectors and observers look forward to seeing that type of work here," explains one Festival juror.
Featured Artists
The ambience, eminence and prices of the works here (many in the tens of thousands of dollars) far surpass those in the normal summer art festival!
Yet strolling through this Laguna Beach Art Festival is well worth the time spent - even if you dont spend a penny. Being here can feel like attendance at a large group show at a high-end art gallery.
Here are some of the artists in the 2011 festival
Bruce Burr: His mixed media photographs have surprising and whimsical elements, several evoking the extravagance of our car culture, others involving animals.
Gavin Heath: His intricate, exquisite painted blown glass works of fanciful horses, birds, apes and other animals, have exotic, tribal aspects. He also does glass teapots and boxes.
Gregg Stone: This visual artist/chronicler of people of Hispanic heritage has outdone himself this year with multi-media portraits of heavily tattooed people living in the U.S./Mexican border region.
Greg Riley: His one-of-a-kind museum quality ceramic sculptures are inspired by teapots, all with textural surfaces suggesting the look of museum artifacts, as well as whimsical, even surreal aspects.
Ken Auster: In this artistic world often leaning toward the fantastic, this artist brings us back to earth with small expressive oils, painted with thick brush strokes and masculine vibrancy. Several works depict chefs, one of his favorite recent subjects.
Marie-Pierre Philippe-Lohezic: This Parisian trained sculptor creates works of bronze and stainless steel, depicting the human form. While all sculptures are contemporary in style and expression, they recall the spirit of the classic sculptors of her native country.
Michael Ezzell: His sculptures of warriors, fish, other animals and figures from alien cultures are ceramic thrown shapes, fired to 2000 degrees. He adds leaded or hand cut and fused glass and in some pieces, LED lights. The results are exquisite, exotic pieces that could inhabit storybooks, sci fi films or our imagination.
Rick Graves: Rick refers to the technique he created as "horizontal plane of slit scan photography." The result is photographs; each several feel wide, capturing the broad panorama and movement of a particular scene, including a parade at last years Pageant of the Masters.
New Exhibition Booths
The 2011 Festival of Arts had a new exhibition design, thanks to the festivals new exhibits director, Martin Betz. The entrance featured a wall of information, including videos featuring artists and schedules for the day. A new artists information booth with books and brochures about exhibiting artists was added. And for the first time in the festivals history, all booths were the same size, with all displaying art, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media and jewelry to advantage. Visitors and exhibitors were delighted with the changes.
See also Pageant of the Masters, Sawdust Festival and Art-A-Fair pages.
Newsletter
Enjoy my newsletter about the Festival of Arts!
