A Summer Tradition Laguna Beach, California
“Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso
Every summer for the longest time, I made the long trek to Laguna Beach to visit the Laguna Art Festival and the Sawdust Festival and if I was lucky to see the Pageant of the Masters. Then work, travel and Covid all got in the way and even with the best of intentions did not have the opportunity to visit for many years.
Thank you @Ofeliapedrochearanda for suggesting that we meet at the festival. Even though our plans did not materialize the way we had originally planned, nevertheless I enjoyed catching up with you and enjoying my wonderful summer evening with friends, music and pageantry.
The festival opens at 4:00 and we got there just in time to score a fabulous parking space and be some of the first few to enter. This allowed us to stroll at our own pace, stopping and chatting with some of the artists and in general admiring whatever caught our eye.
Watercolors of scenes in Sienna and Florence. Had to stop and chat with the artist on her inspiration and travels.
i absolutely loved this work but the artist was busy and even though I made myself a note to go back that way and chat with the artist, I just never did.
Art has so many forms and mediums and it’s an education to stroll through and appreciate all that it encompasses keeping in mind all the artists represented here are local award-winning artists.
Very colorful and totally caught my eye even from a distance.
There are 100 hundred artists featured here exhibiting all the different forms of art including digital photography, jewelry, oils, watercolors, sculptures etc.
In the center of the booths is a dedicated area sponsored by Bank of America that invites you to let the inner artist in you lose. @MonicaKapur working on her masterpiece using pencils. We all brought home a souvenir from the #MadeAtFOA for her home displays.
On select evenings there are musical events, so of course we chose to go on an evening where we could attend jazz performed by @Rayfuller the weeper and his ensemble and the wonderfully talented Ties who accompanied the ensemble with her voice. By the end of the evening, we along with the rest of the audience were dancing and clapping and in general having a great time.
As the evening shadows began to lengthen it was time to head over to the entrance of the Irvine bowl where the pageant is presented under the stars.
This year’s theme is, “ART COLONY: IN THE COMPANY OF ARTISTS”. Believe it or not it’s the 90th anniversary of the first presentation of living pictures under the stars. Each night famous works of art are recreated with real people posing in elaborate sets to the sound of the superb orchestra, strobe lights and the voice of the commentator telling you the story behind each piece.
it’s the ultimate light and sound show which holds its audience spell bound as lights light up pieces along the hillsides flanking the auditorium. This year in a first for me the show included performance art in the form of props and dancing.
So long, farewell until the next time. Art is a personal choice, but the Pageant of the Arts is definitely something in a totally different class. I was mesmerized the first time I went and honestly, I haven’t lost the fascination so many years later. Others might think once is enough.
Getting home was another story with the busy 405 freeway being closed in several places for road construction forcing us onto surface streets and adding a significant amount of time to our commute. Don’t they say there’s a serpent in every Eden.