There was a wide variety of talents on display this past Saturday at the Bethany Beach Arts Festival. After I finished up work, I took a trip up to Bethany to experience a change of pace and different forms of art. Strolling up and down the very windy boardwalk you could see jewelers, photographers, painters, potters, and everything in between.
One of the first people I stopped to chat with was Michele Foster-Lucas. Michele is an artist @ work as she describes herself and had an array of styles and mediums hung along the walls of her wind stricken tent. She used pastel in many of her pieces and incorporated ink within some of them which created a beautiful arrangement of colors. Visit her website at www.artmichele.com to get in contact with Michele and view or purchase some of her work.
The wind seemed to cause a problem with the tents and displays throughout the afternoon but the artists continued through the wind to share their work. As I approached the next tent some very vibrant photo’s taken by a man named Michael Perry caught my eye. One of the first things I noticed was the many different places he had gone to capture such intense photographs of mountain landscapes, caves, plains, and much more. He mentioned that many of his pieces on display included multiple photo’s to capture the true vastness of the horizon in some and in others to bring out more color. One of his pieces included more than 21 photographs, really beautiful stuff. Look deeper into his work at www.michaelperryphotography.com.
With my mother being an art teacher and her vast knowledge of working with both red and white clay, the work of Paul Aspell was truly interesting to me. Paul is a potter who mentioned he has also taught pottery in the past. He mentioned that the only two colors he has in his workplace is green and white, but Paul uses these colors creatively. Another creative aspect to his work was his use of texture that you can picture on a vas in the following photo’s. Stop by www.paulaspellpottery.com to inquire about his functional and aesthetically appealing pottery.
The Wise Woman Weaves A.K.A. Gayle Mosier was the last artist I spoke with at the festival. With materials from Indonesia and Japan, Gayle creates nantucket baskets, reed baskets, ribbed baskets, and custom baskets to your liking. Any baskets that have colored reed or carved wood are stained and carved by Gayle herself. She has turned this once hobby into her full-time job and she’s damn good at it. Support Gayle’s business and view some of her pieces at www.wisewomanweaves.com.
