Festa Itlaiana

Posted on by Thor

I went to Lake Lilly Park in Maitland where there was an Italian Festival. The festival was in the venue right on Lake Lilly. I parked a few blocks away at the Maitland Art Center and hiked the short distance to the festival. New cars were parked on the grass from a local dealership. I decided to sketch a food tent that was doing a booming business. They were selling freshly made cannolis. Cannoli consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta. The heavy set guy was stirring the cannoli custard. I believe they filled the cannolis on the spot as they were sold. I was sitting next to an Italian family. The young boy was running everywhere and the petite wife seemed to be always trying to wrangle him in. They didn’t seem to mind my sketching.

Once the quick sketch was done, I scouted inside. There were expensive slices of pizza. and I ordered one. On stage was a singer who was crooning Frank Sinatra classics. The next act was an accordion player. In the corner of the venue were exotic Venetian masks. Another table offered travel plans to Italy. The audience relaxed at the round tables. By the time I made my way back outside, the cannoli vendor had run out of cannolis. I was devastated. How could I write about my experiences without at least tasting a cannoli? There was an Italian ice vendor who still had product, but I didn’t decided to try any.

The scene inside reminded me of the wedding scene in the Godfather movie in which classic Vegas performers entertained the guests. This small event just lacked that level of professional polish. In general the vendors were commercial and not necessarily Italian themed. For instance Verizon was offering information about their Internet packages. I was desperate to get rid of At&T which gave me horrible reception in my apartment. They also never figured out how to mail me my bills, so it was stressful to have to double check to make sure i was paying them despite never getting billed. Probably because of this Italian Festival, I ended up switching to Verizon and Now my reception is better and they send me monthly bills. Life is much easier. it was satisfying to get rid of AT&T which offered literally no costumer service.

In NYC there were always lots of these ethnic street festivals. I miss just running into festivals on the fly. Festivals do exist in Orlando, you just have to keep an eye out to find them.

Marla E. Artist Opening.

Posted on by Thor

The Maitland Civic Center on Lake Lilly is trying to change it’s image. It has been renamed “Venue on the Lake” (641 South Maitland Avenue Maitland FL 32751). People perceived the Civic Center as being run by the city. The venue is however privately owned. It has undergone a major face lift recently, including, Linda’s Corner which was the east wing’s catering area. They considered calling it Linda’s Bar, but that was vetoed as being too low class. The outside landscaping was redone along with the patio and decorative outdoor lights.

George Williston gave everyone a quick lesson in chairs. The Center used to be full of simple folding chairs. It turns out folding chairs have a butt life of at most half an hour. New black banquet  chairs have a butt life of about an hour, and the new green banquet chairs have a butt life of several hours. I was pleased that I was sitting in s green banquet chair. Danial Jordan performed on flute and saxaphone as patrons sampled the banquet food and free drinks. The evening was mostly a fundraiser to continue the restorations at the Venue. There is a theater in the Ivanhoe district called The Venue, so perhaps a better name is needed.

The gallery area between the east and west wings was also re-modeled. Artwork by Mark E. Artist was on display. Her large abstract painting incorporate en-caustics to create three dimensional patterns on the surface followed by bold colorful brushwork. Marla has a face designed for smiling. Her wide eyes were magnified in her 1950s styled eye glasses. My favorite painting had a blue and green field on the upper two thirds of a vertical panel.  An simple brown arching line seemed to define a ground plane with encaustic squares filling a grid pattern. Circular “planets” floated above. I believe the show is up for several months, so stop out.

Plein Air Paint demonstration Frank Ferrante

Posted on by Thor

On Saturday June 15th there was a free Plein Air Paint demonstration by Frank Ferrante at the Cottage, located on beautiful Lake Lily Park in Maitland. I walked all the way around the lake, figuring a plein air painting demonstration would be outside. “En Plein Air” after all is a French phrase meaning “in the open air”. I finally discovered a small sign that pointed to the cottage. Perhaps ten to fifteen artists had gathered to watch Frank work.

Frank is originally from New Jersey and three other artists were from the Garden State as well, myself included. He now lives in Port Orange, Florida. Frank studied painting with John Osborne at the Ridgewood Art Institute. He painted every Sunday with John Osborne outside for many years. The methods he learned were handed down through several generations of artists having begun with American Impressionist Frank Vincent Dumond who taught at the Art Student’s League in NYC. Dumond died in 1961, the year I was born.In 1966 Frank Ferrante was stationed at Paris Island and he joined the Beaufort Painting Association.

The demonstration focused on the formal elements of painting composition, color values, structure and form. Emphasis was placed on composition, capturing light and dark shapes, atmosphere and mood while using strong color harmony. Frank utilizes what he calls the prismatic palette which mimics the prismatic effects seen outside. The ROYGBIV colors of the rainbow were arranged across the top of the palette. Anything upright in a landscape would catch the sunlight to become orange. The sky is like a big blue lamp and water reflects the blue of the sky. Frank began with a very rough valve study in which he scumbled blue grey paints onto the canvas to find the darks of the scene. He was painting a path that lead back into a palm tree filled grove.

He then put up a canvas of the same scene that was much more developed. He talked about folding darks into lights and lights into darks. His brush strokes were X’s and he worked moist oils into moist. His brush gets plenty of abuse and it’s flat shape becomes warn into a point by the time he is done with it. Studies that he does on location are usually smaller and only one in thirty ever becomes a studio painting. He stressed that the darks in a painting are very important.  I discovered that I didn’t have my brushes in my bag to finish my sketch! I started putting in some darks using graphite. Then I took everything out of my bag and discovered one abandoned brush in the bottom of the bag. My sketch was saved. The demonstration was much shorter than I expected. After the demonstration, I joked with Frank that his demonstration was like one of those cooking shows in which the finished cake was already baked and under the counter. We both laughed.