Haines City EDC
BUSINESS CAPITOL OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
News
Street Painting Festival adds color, whimsy to Railroad Park
By Kara Phelps
News Chief staff
Published: Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 4:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 2:00 a.m.
Jermiah Jessie, 7, left, and Jenai Stribbling, 8, work on their art in the Kids Zone
at the Main Street Street Painting Festival. Saturday, March 06, 2010.Paul Crate / News Chief
HAINES CITY - Chalk it up to some talented artists.
Photographers aimed cameras and snapped away at Railroad Park in downtown Haines City on Saturday.
"It's really a photographic moment," Haines City Main Street Executive Director Ronni Wood said as she surveyed the scene.
Haines City Main Street's first-ever Street Painting Festival brought about 45 artists to Railroad Park to draw on the asphalt with pastels. Some depicted animals or intricate patterns. Some reached into art history to recreate paintings by William Bouguereau, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and others. Some drew cartoon characters, and both Bob Marley and Marilyn Monroe made appearances.
Visitors exclaimed and pointed their cameras as the artworks took shape over the course of the day. A "Kids' Zone" let children draw their own pictures with chalk, and vendors sold food.
Jennifer Chaparro of North Palm Beach was putting the finishing touches on a reproduction of a Norman Rockwell painting Saturday afternoon. She said she'd been working since a little before 9 a.m.
"They've got a really good turnout," she said of the crowd.
Chaparro described her work process, saying she first copies the outline of a painting onto a large piece of paper. Then she punches tiny holes in it, tracing the main lines of the picture. On site, she tapes down the paper and scrubs chalk over the top. It filters through the holes onto the asphalt, and then she begins to fill in the details, using pastels for shading.
Several artists drew grids on the asphalt to help reproduce the original work. Others simply started drawing freehand.
As the day lengthened and the drawings slowly progressed, the scent of hair spray filled the air. Artists misted their work with it to keep the pastels from smearing. Chalk dust covered the concrete. It was a competition for six first-place prizes, to be awarded Saturday evening in various categories.
The depot next to Railroad Park housed the work of another 10 artists, mostly from Haines City. Melisssa Conn of the Haines City Economic Development Council organized the show, which featured basketry, paintings and children's work. She said it allowed visitors to "have something else to do as the artists paint."
Wood said Main Street began planning the festival in December. She'd taken on the Executive Director position just three months beforehand, but she had seen photos of other, similar street painting events and wanted to try it in Haines City.
In December, "We knew it was going to have to be in a very short time," Wood said. With summer's scorching temperatures, holding the festival then would be impossible, organizers decided. So the March date was chosen.
Wood said she was looking forward to hosting the festival again next spring.
kara.phelps@newschief.com