The iMadonnari Festival is held each year in May. I've been to several of these festivals and love watching the work progress over the 3 day weekend. Beautiful art by talented people.
From their website:
Madonnari, or street painters, transform the Mission plaza using pastels on pavement to create 150 vibrant and colorful, large scale images. We are proud to be the first to bring this romantic festival to the western hemisphere from our sister festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy. The festival benefits the Children's Creative Project, a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara County Education Office. The Project serves 50,000 children in more than 100 schools with visual and performing arts workshops and performances throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
The pictures are either original works or copies of paintings. Its all done in pastels on the pavement in front of the Mission. After the weekend, they are left in front of the Mission for people to wander over.
You can see small leaves and branches have already fallen on some of them.
Artists working on a face drawing.
A picture marked with the grid to be drawn with chalk.
The chalk drawing above is based on the artist's drawing below.
One of my favorites based on a Mucha picture.
Each spot has a sponsor.
Some sponsors are schools, and kids from the school work together to create the pictures.
This woman was drawing a picture of her son at the beach, based on a photograph.
The theme here was travel to foreign countries like Thailand.
Every year this man does a current picture of his kids. You can watch them grow up over the years.
This was a featured artist who does drawings at chalk festivals all over the states and in Europe.
Her 3-D pictures are very popular.
One artist is picked each year to be the featured artist. They get to do their work in a large area right in front of the steps that lead up to the Mission.
Where the Wild Things Are - featuring this woman's granddaughter.
Sally and Janet at the Mission.
Steve Jobs memorial drawing.
Posters of great drawings from past years.
Fresh food and entertainment is provided next to the Mission for festival goers.
Cool and delicious Gelato!
The artist and her work.
Both these ladies are working on this picture, and the artist on the right is also the model in the picture.
The artist with her son, who is shown in the chalk drawing.
Flowers from Santa Barbara.
Peonies and lace from my friends Mette and Sissel's home.
A wonderful trip! Santa Barbara is my favorite place to visit.
3 comments:
like modern day sand painting in a way
Yes - and each artist with their own style.
So exhilarating to see and be a part of.
WOW! Love all the different styles - amazing art work! How cool to be able to watch it in progress. I'm amazed they can do such large paintings in a day. (I also can't help but think about how much pastel the concrete must eat!) Hard to pick a fave, but I love the dramatic perspective of the boy at the beach.
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