Festive Summer

Three Historic Art Festivals and A Pageant Provide Laguna Beach With a Magical, Artistic Vibe

The evening I first attended an opening of the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts (FOA), I felt as though I had walked into a glamorous party in a movie.

There I was, 20 years ago, hobnobbing with the glitterati of Southern California, observing women in their finest summer attire on the arms of well-heeled men. I meandered among more than 100 art-filled booths, met with artists displaying their paintings, sculptures, photography and ceramics; in stalls nestled in a six-acre park in Laguna Canyon, cooled by ocean breezes. Popular tunes performed by a live band blended with the sounds of numerous people greeting each other and talking about art, creating a joyous cacophony.

I was so enchanted by that evening that I attended every subsequent FOA opening through 2019, until it was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19. The following year, the festival was re-opened, and legions of local artists and supporters turned up. The glamorous party ambiance however was replaced by a more cautious attitude. But the artists and their art in all kinds of styles were there. The vibe was more down-to-earth but still magical

Ceramic Sculpture, “Seed to Tree,” by Marlo Bartels

That subdued mood has continued. On July 1 of this year, I attended the FOA opening party. This time, with most attendees dressed casually, wearing somber expressions, the art was the star of the show. That attitude and ambiance, apparently a reflection of the mood of this country, enabled the art within the Festival to shine more brightly.

With 120 artists from Orange County—some there for the first time, and others displaying their work for decades—the art became more interesting than the people attending. Here are examples.

Ceramicist Marlo Bartels’ inspirations for his finely crafted works include the early 20^th century Arts and Crafts movement, and the 100-year-old tradition of California tiles. To create his ceramic sculptures, tables, benches and chairs, he draws full-size plans of the work, then builds a substructure. If the project is large, it requires hundreds of individual tiles, each rolled out of slabs of clay. Each tile is fired twice, the second time with colored glaze. The entire piece is put together with thin set mortar and then grouted.

Wooden Vases by Jonathan Boyd and Valerie Killeen

A newcomer to the Festival is the husband/wife team, Jonathan Boyd and Valerie Killeen. Artist Valerie is the modernist designer of their large wooden vases and Jonathan is the woodworker, employing responsibly sourced materials for the work. Together, they create large timeless art pieces that they explain, “offer a considered approach to the intersection of aesthetics and simplicity.”

Photographer Ron Azevedo includes photos of Chernobyl in his Festival display (among other images from his worldwide travels). He toured Chernobyl and photographed its abandoned dwellings, fields and amusement parks, explaining, “My goal is to display the beauty that can be found in a zone left uninhabitable for humans, and to portray earth’s amazing ability to teem with life, not long after annihilation.”

“No Never Forsake” by Ron Azevedo, from Chernobyl

Wendy Wirth paints en plein air or in the outdoors. Her subject matter includes the canyons, beaches, ocean and tide pools of Laguna Beach, and those of the nearby communities of Dana Point and Crystal Cove. She captures her natural settings in the outdoors, and finishes her work in her studio, applying numerous thin layers of paint to each piece. The results are luminous landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes, revealing the brilliant Southern California light.

As the Festival of Arts advances in age—it is now 93 years old—the quality and variety of the art continues to improve, while the show presides in size and historical reference over the city’s three other summer arts celebrations. Indeed, its founding in 1932 is linked to Laguna’s legacy as an art community and to its tradition of artists creating Impressionist artworks. This legacy continues today, as several of the Festival’s artists are inspired and influenced in their paintings by the town’s heritage as a mecca of California Impressionism.

“Luminescence” Main Beach by Wendy Wirth

The Festival of the Arts helped spawn three other summer events: the Pageant of the Masters, the Sawdust Art Festival and the Art-A-Fair, each with its own identity and style. Adjoining the Festival of Arts grounds is the Pageant of the Masters, Laguna’s exhibition of classic to contemporary art through “living pictures”—live actors posing as figures in artworks. (Read more about the Pageant of the Masters.)

A quarter mile down the road from the Festival of Arts is the Sawdust Art Festival, exhibiting works by 200 plus Laguna Beach artists and crafts people. The Sawdust is a throwback to the sixties with its scrimshaw, art glass, painted clothing, ceramics, paintings, prints, jewelry, photography, wood and metal art. It is situated in a magnificent eucalyptus grove with streams and waterfalls running through it.

Across Laguna Canyon Road from the Festival of the Arts is the colorful, diverse Art-A-Fair, a venue that broke away from the Sawdust Art Festival decades ago. The paintings, sculpture, mixed media, digital art, ceramics, glass, jewelry and wood art pieces range from Impressionism to abstract, to surreal and newer emerging styles. Participating are artists from around the world.

Energy and talent permeate the Festivals in this quarter mile stretch of Laguna Canyon; while the art there reflects Laguna Beach’s quality, diversity and history.

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