It’s a sure sign that summer’s here when lines of cars snake up Laguna Canyon Road and crowds gather to get into the arts festivals that put Laguna Beach on the map starting in 1932.
That was the year the Festival of Arts first opened as a relatively small affair, with artists hanging their creations off fences in the streets.
Now, it’s a different affair altogether. This year, close to 120 artists are showing and selling their works in custom-built booths on spacious grounds refurbished in 2017 to the latest architectural specifications.
As before, “multimedia” is a scant description for the variety of art that spectators and collectors can appreciate and acquire: There are paintings, fabric art, ceramics, blown glass, jewelry, sculpture, mixed-medium work, photography and works that defy conventional descriptions—in short, something for every taste and budget.
Photography is especially well represented, with works including Greg Boratyn’s color-saturated landscapes, elegant images by Mitch Ridder, panoramic prints by Rick Graves and the conceptual photo creations of Jeffrey Rovner, to name a few.
This year’s array of artists includes festival regulars, many of whom repeat attendees can by now count among old friends: Photographers Graves and Robert Hansen; painters Michael Situ, Elizabeth McGhee, Michael Ward and David Milton; ceramic sculptor Marlo Bartels; wood sculptor Troy Poeschl; and furniture maker Randy Bader, among others. Visitors can also stock up on new jewelry by Sheri Cohen, a Village resident, and Karin Worden.
Also not to be missed is the Junior Art Exhibit where budding artists from kindergarten through high school show their remarkable talent—with quite a few creations surpassing what can be seen in some commercial galleries.
As I explored the grounds, I found several intriguing artists who were new to me or whose works stand out in this year’s memory.
Having tried my hand at pastel painting, I gravitated to Mary…
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