Retired and Lovin' It: FLORIDA's - Mount Dora Annual Art Festival

OOPS! I hit Publish instead of Save. So if you first saw this Blog without any writing, check it out again for my notes. Mount Dora is a more wealthy area in north central Florida and very active in the cultures. We were amazed with the setting when we went there Sunday after church to check out the 34th Annual Art Festival. There appeared to be many restaurants and cafes

behind the street displays of art as well as in side streets

. We have decided that we need to go back after the Festival to check out the city and lake areas. We found that there were train rides

and boat tours available during the two days of art displays, which we bypassed for a later time. This Queen Anne style house was built by a John Donnelly in 1893 and was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and is now owned by the F & A.M. Lodge of Mt. Dora

. The city was teeming with people when we arrived there about 1 pm

but became much more crowded as time went on. There were many different forms of painting from that done on children's faces for fun

to Oil, Acrylic and Water color done on canvas. Gary even found a very accomplished pencil artist to chat with. Some of his art work has been done of and for famous people. I do believe most all of the work displayed was for sale if the price was right. Some prices were displayed and very expensive and some were not displayed. I could have afforded a very, very small portion of what was there. However, I do not have any space for more and have an artist in house who keeps me supplied, when he is not giving his work away. And you can guess who that might be! There were some musicians scattered throughout the Show including Michellet Innocent

who had a beautiful voice!! Gary had seen him before at the Grand Rapids, Michigan Art Show. This painting

was priced at $975 and this artist also had a much larger piece for $3000 which I did not photo. I did see another one priced at $5000 but do not remember which booth or the subject matter. I should take a little recorder with me?? I tried to be careful when taking pictures as some of the artists frowned upon having their pieces photographed. And some were down right adamant and told me when I did not notice their sign prohibiting the use of cameras. One young 18 year old female artist was one of those artists and I told her that I appreciated her need to protect her work. She stopped in front of the painting to stop me. I had been so entranced with the subject matter which was two identical theatrical faces facing each other as if to kiss, while on the whole it was the image of a butterfly. It was beautiful! She was so pleasant about it that I did not cheat and take the photograph. Then the artist from Italy who now resides in Florida had quite a few of his pieces of wall sculpture

which were also fascinating. I had taken three photos and was in the process of taking the fourth one, which would have shown the depth of his dimensional work, when he stopped me very curtly. I had not realized there was a sign on one until he pointed it out

, though I am sure that he would not have believe that. I know that artists can be touchy concerning this and thus I try to just shoot and then sort through later at home. My mission is that all of you will be able to see what we have seen and enjoy it to some extent also! This artist walking in front of one of his larger pieces

had many beautiful birds

on canvas. I wondered later if he had not stepped in front of it because of my camera. When I enlarged it, it appears that he is looking to the side directly at my camera! Some paintings had the frames painted to match

and some painted their frames to extend a print that they had in the frame. It made them very unique! The next displays are a selection of various types and I will let you guess as to what the media is!

Then these natural scenery paintings were so vivid that they seemed to put you right there on the scene,

from the waterfall

to the foggy mountain side

to the wet rock in the mountain ledges

to the sand in the dessert

to the animals bathing in the river . There were many other forms of media used in the art works including many jewelry displays. Gary said he has a concern that some of the jewelry is not original. However, some of it is unique enough in display that you can tell it is. There is always many gathered around the jewelry! But I must say that I did see people walking away carrying framed art work also. This is always a very good sign! There is anything from gourds, clay, metal, photography, stone and wood sculpture to fabric. All of it beautiful and interesting. Makes me wish I had just a fraction of the talent!