Crowds of art lovers will meander through white tent booths along Cape Coral Parkway this weekend for the 27th annual Cape Coral Festival of the Arts.
The event, hosted by the Rotary Club of Cape Coral, will feature 300 artists and craftsmen. Chair and founder John Jacobsen said the event always brings in heavy crowds with many repeat attendees.
“If the weather is nice, we’ll have about 100,000 for the weekend,” Jacobsen said. “People plan their vacations around it.”
Jacobsen said the Rotary Club aims to create a balanced show every year with different forms of arts and crafts at various prices.
“There will be sculptures or art that are eight to 10 thousand and some for $100 or $50 or even $5,” he said.
Artist Dawn Weber, a Cape Coral resident, said she is always happy with how the festival is run and the works featured.
“It has a really good variety of homespun talents like us and artists who are famous all over the world,” Weber said.
Weber and her partner, Cindylee Sly, are bringing hand-carved pens, wine bottle stoppers and other functional items using exotic woods and colored resins to the festival. Weber, a retired police officer, said the pair started to hone their craft as a way to relieve stress.
“Probably the most common feedbak is, ‘Do we really make this?’” Weber said. “We keep our standards high. It’s our biggest compliment.”
Jacobsen said the Rotary Club started this event nearly three decades ago for the community to become acquainted with art without the intimidation factor sometimes associated with an art museum or gallery.
“It was a chance to bring art and culture to the community in a non-threatening manner,” he said.
Festival-goers walk from booth to booth on a closed-off section of Cape Coral Parkway and often communicate with the artists themselves. They often ask questions about the subject of the piece or what inspires the artist.
“Having that opportunity is rare,” Jacobsen said. “(It’s) a real chance for people to have a true one-on-one.”
The feedback is also appreciated by the artists. Cape Coral resident Gretchen Kish Serrano said these conversations help keep her motivated.
“The best part to me is seeing the pet lovers and the reaction to my work,” she said.
Serrano paints pet portraits imitating works from master artists. She has works from more than 15 master artists featuring 40 different dog breeds.
“This year I have three new art styles, Gustav Klimut, Jackson Pawlick and Salvador Doggy,” she said.
Cape Coral resident Shirley Hales also receives feedback from attendees about her watercolor paintings of nautical, beach and nature scenes.
“A lot of folks do comment on the quality of my work and that always makes me feel good,” Hales said. “If it wasn’t worthwhile I wouldn’t do it. It’s a lot of work.”
The festival picks one artist’s work to grace the posters and advertisments for the festival. This year David King’s watercolor piece Blue Heron with its muted colors and majestic pose is featured. He said he hasn’t seen the poster yet but he has seen some advertisements.
“It looked beautiful on the billboard,” he said. “It was really well done, I thought.”
King, a retired dentist, said he’s inspired by landscapes and nature scenes. He works only with watercolors and works on his paintings in sections, having the color dry before adding to the piece. The self-taught artist said it normally takes him two to three days to complete a painting and he usually works on two to three at a time. He said he’s always impressed with this festival.
“It’s one of the better ones we’ve seen quality-wise, size-wise. It basically has something for everyone,” King said.
No comments:
Post a Comment