The annual Art Festival at Laguna Beach opened on July 2 and it’s like COVID never happened. Adding to the atmosphere of the festival is that it is a great art festival celebrating the 90th birthday.
More than 120 artists exhibit their best in painting – oils, pastels, watercolors and other mediums – along with photography, sculpture, ceramics, blown glass, jewelry, digital works, artist’s art pieces. anta and a few other pointers that go beyond the definition.
It is a technology first intended to appeal to a wide range of tastes and budgets.
Not to be missed is the Junior Art Show. Here budding artists, from elementary to high school, showcase their talent and talent – pure joy.
The Arts Festival showcases the work of more than 120 Orange County artists, including painters, photographers, digital artists, jewelry makers and more.
(Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Pilar Cristi focuses on black and white issues in California. She is exhibiting her work at an art festival in Laguna Beach.
(Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Robert Hansen captures the beauty of southern Mexico in his great photographs. Here he was at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach. (Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Greg Boratyn’s photographs take him from Laguna Beach to faraway places like Patagonia, shown here at the Arts Festival in Laguna Beach.
(Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Ron Azevedo traveled extensively in Ukraine, before the Russian invasion, always with a camera. Here he was at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach.
(Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Digital technology using 3-D modeling software is the specialty of Laguna Woods resident Murray Kruger. His work is on display at the Arts Festival in Laguna Beach.
(Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Natalia Eremeyeva Duarte’s watercolors show her travels through Russia, Europe and now California, shown here at the Arts Festival in Laguna Beach.
(Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Watercolor artist Kirsten Whalen’s work varies from still life to story lines. Her work is on display at the Arts Festival in Laguna Beach.
(Photo by Daniella Walsh)
Laguna Woods resident Rick Graves exhibits his paintings of zebras in Africa and wild horses in Utah, among other images, at the Arts Festival in Laguna Beach. The festival runs until September 2.
(President Rick Graves)
Christine Georgantas, director of exhibitions and events at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach.
(Actual photo)
Photographs dominate the festival this year, mostly fine works that give one an idea of the range of mediums.
Photographer Rick Graves, a resident of the village, exhibited an interesting display of zebras, taken during a recent trip to Africa, and one of the wild horses in Onaqui, Utah. Pictures and images of animals round out the display.
“I’ve exhibited here for 14 years and I always love the opportunity to show new work,” he said.
Graves’ work distinguishes itself by shooting on film with minimal digital, or Photoshop, intervention, he said. Panoramas are his signature style.
“I built a custom camera system that shoots the entire film as a single frame,” he said. “A conventional camera shoots 24 frames or pictures on a roll of film; however, my camera captures the time frame as a long frame on the entire roll of film.”
Nearby, an exhibition of Ron Azevedo’s photographs taken during his travels through Ukraine are both visually interesting and relevant, taken before the recent Russian invasion.
The still life of handmade Easter eggs, a folk art in many Slavic countries, reminds one of the beautiful traditions of the region before its current destruction.
In contrast, the images from his Chernobyl series speak to the ever-present accidents.
“At first I planned to bring the pictures I made in Russia but I changed my plans,” Azevedo said.
Pilar Cristi said she fell in love with photography on a trip to Paris. Working in black and white, she now trains her lens mostly on California scenes, which she prints on metal and is covered in a shiny patina.
Experience the visual journey of the holidaymakers are the great photos of Robert Hansen of Yucatan in the south of Mexico, and the photos of Greg Boratyn, who travels to the farthest reaches of the world – think Patagonia – to take amazing photos.
Also interesting are the pictures of Christopher Allwine, which appears as bright paintings. It thrives in places like landfills and in abandoned cars.
“I see my work as a final tribute to what others have abandoned, a labor of love,” he said.
Digital artist Murray Kruger was born and educated in South Africa. He arrived in America in 1981 from London and now lives in the village.
“20 years ago I started creating three-dimensional computer-aided design based on land development technology,” he said in a telephone interview. “Everything in the scenes is created in 3-D and can be viewed from any angle on the screen.”
An exhibitor for 16 years at the Art Festival, Kruger said that even when using art, he takes a design approach with most of his work, which is inspired by reality. He also has the distinction of having one of his works, “The Magician,” in the festival’s permanent collection.
Self-taught for the most part, Kruger says his ideas sometimes originate in his mind and sometimes develop through sketches on the computer.
“I wasn’t very computer literate, but 3-D programming caught my interest,” he said.
Among the featured watercolor artists at the festival was Natalia Eremeyeva Duarte, a Russian-born graduate of the Ural Academy of Architecture and Arts.
“I was always drawing, in school and after,” she said.
