Art fest draws raves from visitors
SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN, gmartin@sun-herald.com
Maryann Cline of Milwaukee, foreground, and her friend Nancy Schreiber of Punta Gorda exit with smiles on their faces from a booth of stained-glass-and-shell creations at the Peace River National Arts Festival Saturday in Punta Gorda.
SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN
Henry Duquette shows a marble in which he created a flower by blowing a glass bubble, dabbing it with color and sucking it back into a pipe, at the art festival in Laishley Park Saturday.
SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN
Mary Lamberti of Punta Gorda shows off the hand-carved bowl she bought at the art festival Saturday. "What I like about it is, it's a very natural thing, very organic," she said.
SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN
Jonathan Hardwick of Punta Gorda takes in a painting of flamingos on the wing at a booth by Englewood artist Ben Essenburg Saturday in Punta Gorda.
SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN
Assistant Maureen Ahmed holds a copy of the book “Flight of the Mind: A Painter's Journey through Paralysis” as author Marcus Thomas looks on. Thomas, who paints with a brush clamped between his teeth, said he and his wife wrote the book to share that "there are are a lot of good things happening, and never give up hope."
PUNTA GORDA — Some booths were filled with brilliantly colored paintings of swamps at sunrise with egrets so detailed one could almost touch their feathers.
Others were decked with a kaleidoscope of stained-glass artifacts, or driftwood carved into eagles and octopi that seemed to be writhing up the grain like serpents, or gold, silver and copper melded into whatever shapes their artisans had fancied.
