Experiencing Joy Through Art

   Good morning and Happy Friday! On Wednesday I posted an article on my experience at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts and some of the wonderful artists I saw at that show. Across the way from the Festival of Arts is another venue known as the Art-A-Fair which I also went to on Tuesday.

   The Art-A-Fair is different from the Festival of Arts in that artists who are allowed to apply to the show are not restricted to a particular zip code range. This brings in a more varied range of mediums and materials that makes the Art-A-Fair a unique experience! I saw some really terrific artists there as well. 

   When it comes to art I am definitely a bit of a traditionalist in my personal tastes, although I do generally like anything that has lots of color and is very painterly and loose. I always love seeing all the different ways in which people express themselves creatively. There were three artists at the Art-A-Fair which really stood out to me because their style is closest to my personal preference. I invite you to have a closer look at these three talented ladies…

   The first is Alice Hernandez-Gaona. Her beautiful still lives are reminiscent of the old masters with her dramatic lighting and refined rendering of values and forms. The surfaces of her work have that “museum finish” as they call it that lends that extra air of antiquity to her pieces. Anyone who knows me knows I have an affinity for vintage and antique things or anything done in that style.

   The second artist that stood out as a personal favorite is Amanda Fish. Her paintings also have that same traditional realist look but Fish’s work is slightly more painterly with visible brushstrokes and they sing with color in the focal areas. They really look like paintings which to me is the best of both worlds. I’ve always felt paintings should render a subject in a way that is different from what we can see with our eyes or cameras. I like big juicy brushstrokes on a canvas!

   Finally there is the work of Lynn Wiederman with her painterly and colorful figural seascapes. She has a number of works depicting women and children at the seashore that bring to mind the paintings of Joaquín Sorolla with their beautifully rendered light and color. I am extremely impressed with Wiederman’s work and hope to see more in the future.

   As with the Festival of Arts, there are too many wonderful artists to cover in one blog post, however I will revisit this subject again in the future. If you are in the Southern CA area, I encourage you to visit the Art-A-Fair. I thoroughly enjoyed it!