Key West - The Art Festival

There were about a hundred booths of this type. The quality of the exhibits was much improved over last year.

The big event of the day was walking do Caroline Street to the Art Festival. It seems to grow in size every year but this year the quality of the artwork was a step above last year. Out of the hundred exhibitors there were a dozen that would qualify as fine art and with prices in the range of $2000 to $5000 per painting. Each painter seems to have found his or her niche. Some focus on photo-realism with oils or pastels and some tend to almost abstract. They were all very accomplished in technically proficiency.

Most booths have "Do Not Photograph" signs up, the paintings are copyrighted. I was allowed to photograph this one. 

All that reminds me of an art exhibit we saw in Maine where Andrew Wyeth held forth. We saw a local exhibit there where the artists were every  bit as good in technical details as Wyeth but yet the paintings just didn't have the same impact. The difference was in the composition.  The details in the arrangement of the subject matter in the picture was paramount. It made all the difference between a very good painting and one that would stand the test of time as something you would want to look at again and again. For example, "Christina's World" is an example of outstanding composition. Any number of good painters could have done the painting technically but it took Wyeth to put the parts together for a gripping scene. So it was with the paintings we saw today. They were very good but not in a class of a Wyeth as to composition but then who is?

Ann stopped and chatted with all the painters and had a great time learning the paper and techniques they used. She returned to the boat and started working right away on her present pastel of three palm trees. The Art Festival will continue on Sunday and if you're in the area, be sure to see it, it's very worthwhile.