Laguna’s 3 art festivals: history and sawdust
Sunday the Festival of Arts launches its 83rd year of displaying the best work of local artists. It’s the original elite outdoor art show in Southern California, it’s nationally known and it’s a key reason for thousands of art lovers to descend on what was once a sleepy beach village each summer.
But it’s far from the only art game in town.
The Sawdust Art Festival and the Art-A-Fair also have yearly shows just up Laguna Canyon Road, and both are on the verge of 50th anniversary celebrations in 2016.
The Festival of Arts and its accompanying Pageant of the Masters living art show were doing just fine for 30 years until family quarrels — or call them artistic differences — boiled over among the artist and gallery owner members about how art was judged and selected for the show. A group split from the festival in the mid-1960s and put on separate art shows.
The members of the splinter group continued to have different ideas about jury selection and whether artists had to be local. By 1968, there were three separate summer art shows in town.
The Sawdust festival opened that year on a leased, slightly hilly grove of eucalyptus trees on the canyon road about a mile from the Festival of Arts.
The third group, which soon called itself Art-A-Fair, held shows at several locations until it too got a permanent home in 1988: a property roughly halfway between the Sawdust and Festival of Arts properties on Laguna Canyon Road.
Whatever the differences over the years, the situation has only benefited the approximately 200,000 people drawn to the annual festivals for the art, music and food. With the locations so close to each other, it is easy to see all three in a single day.
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Fine art with a facade
The Festival of Arts is the original. The open-air art show has been taking place yearly since 1932, and its Pageant of the Masters has been held almost that long. The festival has evolved from an informal show along the beach to a tented gathering of fine art.
Sunday’s opening celebrates the new front entrance façade, which mimics the trees along Laguna Canyon Road in stone and metal. Inside the gates is a juried show with 140 artists displaying fine paintings, sculptures, blown glass and fine jewelry. Popular draws include Randy Bader’s uniquely carved wooden furniture and whimsical story paintings by Scott Moore that feature miniature people next to giant-sized everyday objects like coffee cans. Look also for Michael Ezzell’s intricate metal sculptures of birds and fish and Wendy Wirth’s soothing seascapes.
A yearly treat is the festival’s display of drawings and paintings by school-age children in the Junior Art Exhibition.
The Tivoli Terrace restaurant is set on a hillside in a hacienda; outdoor tables are available in the French garden. Gina’s Alfresco has counter service for casual Italian food.
Live music is offered every night leading up to the Pageant of the Masters show in the Irvine Bowl. Tickets for the show are additional. Reservations are a must, especially on weekends, since it is a big draw. The theme this summer is “The Pursuit of Happiness.”
Festival admission includes art talks at noon Thursdays, jazz concerts on Saturday afternoons, cooking demonstrations and concerts on Sunday afternoons and guided tours.
Thursday evening wine and chocolate tastings are available for $15, and workshops on printmaking, ceramics and multimedia are offered daily for fees starting at $20. The festival has adult and teen art workshops and youth art education days, also at additional charges.
A celebrity benefit concert featuring Melissa Manchester will be held Aug. 29, the last weekend of the festival.
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Artists do all at Art-A-Fair
Art-A-Fair has no paid staff. All the work and responsibilities are shouldered by its 125 members as a cooperative organization.
“We are all volunteers,” said Teri Powers, an artist and current marketing director. “Our artists do everything — security, tickets, the sales booth, setting up and taking down.
“We even have a bucket brigade. In case of rain, we have a team of people who will come here and make sure all the art is protected.”
On a preview night for the press and invited guests, each artist brought snacks and drinks and served from their sales spaces. Small tables displayed tea, wine, cookies and chips. The artists serving wine seemed to have the largest crowd.
The interior gallery is divided by angled walls that create spacious display room for each artist. The roof is white sheeting, which protects visitors from the sun. Muggy days are muggier in here, but the artists have installed windows on the ocean side of the building to let the cool breeze flow in.
Art-A-Fair offers interesting variety and some unusual work. The most popular and best known include Laura Curtin’s elephant photos, in which baby elephants are tinted pink. At least four artists have varying styles of pet pictures, from soft, approachable dog faces by Marie Lavalee to amusing cat drawings by Laura Berry.
Also expect to see oil paintings, crisp lithographs, sculptures, jewelry and imaginative mixed-media works.
Art-A-Fair has stepped up its musical entertainment from Thursdays through Sundays, and its restaurant, Tivoli Too! — a companion to the original Tivoli Terrace at the Festival of Arts — underwent a major renovation within the last couple of years.
Art classes in oil, acrylic and watercolor painting are held all summer.
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Sawdust? Not really
Of the three art shows, only the Sawdust Art Festival is reminiscent of the hippie culture and flower children.
Note the booths with scrimshaw etchings and shark tooth jewelry, butterfly crafts, pounded copper doorbells, ceramic mushroom garden art, leather sandals, handmade clothing and toe rings. It could be 1968 all over again.
Yet these artists are comfortably placed near the timelessness of brilliant oils, detailed lithographs, glowing watercolors and fine silver and gold jewelry.
The nonprofit Sawdust organization has 200 artists displaying this summer, and the setting — on a slightly hilly eucalyptus grove along Laguna Canyon Road — is informal and relaxed. The art tends to be less expensive than that at the Festival of Arts, but there is a wide range of paintings, photography, glass works, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, woodwork, textiles and furniture.
“We have 20 new artists this year,” said marketing coordinator Kelsey Paprocki.
The festival schedule includes two runway fashion shows, on July 26 and Aug. 23. A fundraising auction for artists in need is set for Aug. 9.
New art workshops this summer include a session on glass blowing and another on pottery. The daily demonstrations of these crafts continue. The rest of the workshop lineup includes various types of painting, including 3D and Chinese brush painting, as well as print making, collages, Mexican string art and wet chalk. Crafts for kids are offered daily at the Children’s Art Spot.
Also new: Sunday nights are devoted to dance lessons on the main deck.
“It will be everything from swing to salsa,” Paprocki said.
Live music can be enjoyed from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. every day on the elevated main deck next to a small waterfall and stream and in an alcove near the saloon.
Wednesday nights are devoted to a singer/songwriter performance series, coordinated by Beth Wood, a local singer/songwriter, Paprocki said.
Food is available at Deb’s Deli, Tacos Durrell, Thasos Greek Island Grille and Evan’s Bistro. Espresso on the Go, the Sawdust Saloon and Fran’s Popcorn fill out the menu.
Every other Tuesday evening is chef’s night. Wine-tasting tours of the festival grounds are held at 3 and 7 p.m. Wednesdays.
The Sawdust participating artists are local. The nine-member board of directors consists of artists associated with the group. There is a handful of paid staff.
The festival got its name decades ago when organizers would spread sawdust on the ground to control dust.
The Sawdust Art Festival name stuck, but not the sawdust.
“We cover the grounds with playground wood chips we buy from Apollo Wood Recovery Inc. of Fontana,” Paprocki said.
Basically, it is recycled urban wood waste, processed to be used as a safe, soft outdoor surface.
“It is cleaner, lighter and smells better,” she said.
If You Go
Festival of Arts
When: 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach
Where: 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily through Aug. 30
Tickets: $7 to $10; free admission all summer with purchase of Pageant of the Masters ticket
Information: (949) 494-1145; foapom.com
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Sawdust Art Festival
When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through Aug. 30
Where: 935 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach
Tickets: $8.50 for a single-day ticket; $7 for seniors; $18 for a summer pass
Information: (949) 494-3030; sawdustartfestival.org
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Art-A-Fair
When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays through Saturdays through Aug. 31
Where: 777 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach
Tickets: $7.50
Information: (949) 494-4514; art-a-fair.com
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Pageant of the Masters
When: 8:30 p.m. nightly through Aug. 30
Where: 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach
Tickets: $15 to $230; purchase of a pageant ticket allows free admission to the Festival of Arts all summer
Information: (949) 494-1145; foapom.com
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Also
A special season pass good for admission to all three festivals is $23. For more information, go to lagunabeachpassport.com.