New thing of today. Every Sunday Santa Barbara has an artist exhibition along the beach. It is a feast for the eyes. Fantastic quality selection. So much I wanted to get, for myself and others. I plan on coming back nearer Christmas to do some shopping. It's also just fun to walk and enjoy.
We talked to a few artists & they said you have to pay a fee to the city to exhibit, but you have to live in the area and make everything yourself. Compared to other festivals & meets, there really isn't any junk or crap. Most everything is made with love, art and passion and you see a good variety of things. It's not all just one style of modern or my classification of "huh?". There are some great unique things I really haven't seen anywhere else.
We bought a few prints from various artists & photographers. A lot of places sold smaller affordable prints, and I would buy more if we could. Special mention to the wind art pieces and the artists we bought from, Lorie Jean Morris and David M. Schrader.
Lorie J. Morris was super friendly and nice. She does old style darkroom prints and also uses digital. There were a few great turtle photos she had that looked like watercolor paintings. They turned out to be photos. Because of the way the water caught the light, the turtles looked like a watercolor, but it was a straight photo, no filters and no photoshop. We ended up buying an adirondack in winter photo called "Winter Vista". It was really an amazing shot and with great contrast, and we loved it.
My favorite was David M. Schrader. He was selling some tiny versions of his paintings for very cheap so we could get two. One was an amazing and very beautiful almost surreal print called "Fly me to the moon" with an egret and the moon in a night sky. I'm a bit sad we didn't get the bigger one, but we may go back and get it one day. Also I got another print called "Wonderland". It's very mystical looking with a purple ruin wall with a doorway leading to a very lush green garden. Just some very cool paintings and hard to describe.
Some art just speaks to me, and husband and I found a few at this exhibit that did just that. Lucky us :)
Support your local artists! I highly recommend this outing if you're ever in Santa Barbara on a Sunday.
Websites for
Lorie Jean Morris: SB Art Walk, Gemini Photo
David M. Schrader: Main Website, Shuttershock - I love his stuff - I may follow this artist.
I may start following artists as well. We also saw these exhibits at the Santa Barbara Art Museum.
Chasing Moby-Dick: Selected Works by Tony de los Reyes: I loved this exhibit. Very cool stuff. I loved how dark and realistic it was, and how he paired american figures with Moby-Dick symbolism. The paintings are dark but struck me. I want to read Moby-Dick now. He's showing until January 2, 2011 at SBAM so check it out if you get a chance :)
Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography: This had some great photos as well. These were interesting, thought provoking, and were the types to make you stare and think about it. One was a group of teenagers all looking very serious and wearing all Burberry. There were great photos of kids in a fantasy land, and also one called Blue Things Pink Things with kids surrounded by their toys. Very interesting. This weekend was the last at SBMA but it was a great exhibition.
Also, today is our one year wedding anniversary :) That's a big first! Not too many details I want to post as I want to keep things private for now. Although here's a little artistic rendition for my blog, to commemorate the anniversary :) It's our wedding topper, family artist made wedding vase, the original bromeliad plant we had in our wedding vase, a plate we requested from our registry and our wedding cake - a Filipino mini cake called Puto from the store Goldilocks.
He's a wonderful husband by the way. I got him a little magic kit from Borders, because "he makes my life magical".
Also on the way back from our weekend, I heard this song for the first time, and fell in love with it and the lyrics. Also appropriate for the weekend. Everclear's "The Good Witch of the North". Check out the lyrics too :)
It's been a very eventful first year, and looking forward to many more!
The art walk looks so awesome! We've driven by it a million times and have never stopped - we should all go up some day. (We could even park at Sean's grandma's house, it's right across the street!)
ReplyDeleteI really want to see the prints you got! I'm super curious now, especially about the turtle one - LOVE turtles.
We didn't get the turtle one, but we may have to go back. LOVE TURTLES too :) Used to have the red slider ones :)
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