Carmel Art Festival Weekend

Headed out last Wednesday afternoon
for Laguna Seca Raceway Campground to spend the weekend at the Carmel Art Festival.  We had so much fun and met so many fantastic artists.  I love surrounding myself with art and other artists, people that love art as much as I do.  If you ever have been to our home, you would know that I love art.  Not only are mine and Michael's paintings hanging all over the place, but various pieces that we've collected here and there.  Add a couple more to that collection from this past weekend.  Now I have to move pieces around to find a place for the new pieces.  Don't worry though, I'll make room.

I only wish we could've brought more pieces home with us.  There were quite a few we both had our eyes on.  Alas, we cannot have them all.  Perhaps I can get Michael to build a couple more walls...

The first day we took a hike to Point Lobos to see if we can grab some photos for future paintings and also hoping to run into some artists out and about.  I also couldn't resist the wildflowers and even some weeds.

I have to apologize, some of my photos and videos I did won't load.  I wanted to show a video of Cyndra Bradford, doing a demo palette knife painting.  Michael surprised me and bought it, thick wet paint and all.  It's a gorgeous seascape with huge rocks and water.  I'll take a photo of it and post it.

We first met Marti Walker, fantastic pastel artist.

Mark Monsarrat.

Joe Mancuso.

Some wildflowers for you to enjoy...

 Tonya Zenin.

More flowers...

and a lone ice-plant.

and weeds.

Thursday evening we drove to Mission Ranch to try to make reservations for dinner but we found you had to be a guest of the resort, which we weren't.  Lucky us, we ran into two artists and became friends with one. Monika Piper Johnson, a palette knife painter.  I fell totally in love with her enthusiasm and her work.  She's a beautiful person and I hope we get the chance to meet her again in the future. Hopefully, next time we go to Tahoe.

This guy was painting the same scene as Monika, just above her on the hill.  I didn't get his name but I do remember him saying he was from Minneapolis.  Such a long distance to travel.

The next day we drove to Pacific Grove and Monterey.  We met Robert Sandidge, a fine oil painter out of Diamond Springs, near Placerville.

Ran into Monika again.  She was creating this gorgeous painting of flowers and the trail.

Then we met this lovely artist, Wendy Brayton out of Petaluma.  Wendy told me she begins all of her paintings on a black canvas.  She ends up with some gorgeous colors.

 Down at Carmel Beach we met Gretha Lindwood, another pastel artist.

The lady in the image above and in the two images below was not competing in the art show.  She was just out doing some practice with her painting skills.

Gretha above and below are her pastels.

Gretha's painting.

And the scene above.

Below is just a sampling of the beautiful artwork that was represented in the competition.

On Sunday morning was the two hour Quick Draw.  Each of the fifteen ribbon winning artists set out to create a work of art in the two hour time frame.  That was especially fun to watch.

 Xiao Yu, Lu's wife.  (In English: Jennifer)

 Our good friend, Lu Yu, with his finished painting for the two hour Quick Draw.

Lu's palette.

 Getting everything displayed.  Exciting!

The judge over the art festival was Huihan Liu.  Please learn more about him here.  We chatted on the bench for a little bit before the Quick Draw came to a close.  He's a very special artist with so much talent.  I had no idea until I looked him up.  An incredible artist.

 And the winner of the Quick Draw is...

Crossroads.