Experiencing Joy Through Art

   Hello my friend! Glad to spend some more time with you dishing about art! This past week on, Tuesday July 14th, I spent the afternoon at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, CA. My mom and I also had tickets to see the Pageant of the Masters that evening. It is a summer tradition to which I look forward to with great excitement! The Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach has been going on for over 80 years, and is one of the most famous and renowned art shows in the country.

   The Festival of Arts has recently gotten a face-lift on its entrance buildings and main gate. The old Greco-Roman style entryway is gone and has been replaced with a new and streamlined front. It looks fantastic and I enjoyed seeing it!

(Photo borrowed from www.foapom.com)

   My mom and I arrived at the Festival grounds around 2:30pm and picked up our tickets for that night’s show. We began, as usual, in the artists booths closest to the entrance and worked our way around clockwise until we came back to the starting point. It was a gorgeous, sunny, southern California afternoon.

   I always love to see the varying and amazing artwork that is shown at the Festival of Arts. Form painting to sculpture, glass and jewelry, it has art in almost every type of medium you can imagine.

   While there are far too many talented artists at the Festival for me to cover all of them (140 to be exact!), I will share with you some of my favorites. I chose these based both on their amazing work and that I have not reviewed them before…I wanted to share different people from my post on the Festival last year.

Jordan Dimitrov

   This year was Jordan Dimitrov’s first year showing in the Festival of Arts and his work is nothing short of amazing! He builds, from scratch (with only raw materials) miniatures of 17th and 18th century sailing ships. They are detailed and weathered with exquisite precision and he even completely builds the interiors of the ships despite their never being seen once the work is complete.

Wind of the Seas

   In talking about his work, the Bulgarian-born artist shared with us that he tells a story which inspires each work. He becomes so involved in the creation of the piece that he can smell the salt air, feel the wind and hear the creaking of the ship at it rocks on the sea. The entrancing and heartfelt story comes across in the work and looking at his stunning creations, we feel and smell the same things! Photos cannot do justice to his marvelous ships.

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Molly Lipsher

   Molly Lipsher is a pastel artist who paints glorious and stunning landscapes. Pastels are, by nature, a medium of bright clean color and she makes the best use of it in her work. I was most impressed by her views of the southwest deserts and California landscapes. 

Spectacle • 30 x 40

   Lipsher eloquently captures the quality of light in her landscapes that pastel lends itself to so readily. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at her paintings and from even far away my eye went right to her booth, honing in the on the amazing colors. 

   Her love of the locations she paints definitely comes through in the work. You can see what drew her to those spots and why she was compelled to paint them. I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future!

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Kathy Jones

   Kathy Jones is a figural oil painter who creates artwork depicting various female figures. The thing that makes her work especially captivating is that the faces are intentionally left undefined with only the hint of light and shadow. This allows the viewer to become engaged in the painting and in the story by putting in the face that is meaningful to them.

Dame de Joie • 40 x 30

  This involvement of the viewer is what an artist truly is after in their work. If you tell the whole story then there is no mystery, and no reason to linger. This can be done in a variety of ways, but Jones’s method of incomplete faces is highly effective. In addition, her use of bright color harmonies also makes the paintings compelling. It is interesting to note that in many of her figures there is a glow around the head, almost like a halo. I really enjoyed her work immensely!

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   If you are in the area or live in southern California, I cannot recommend enough that you take time to see the Festival of Arts and the Pageant of the Masters. It is a truly wonderful experience! In my next blog post, I will talk about the Pageant show and some of the other aspects of the Festival. Be sure to look for that post on Tuesday… In the meantime please share with us your own experience of the Festival!