By NewsLine Staff
mail@floridanewsline.com
Mandarin Art Festival continues the Easter family tradition on March 30 – 31, 2024 with locally and nationally renowned artists. Snowbirds are expected from the Northeast, as well as artists from Minnesota, Indiana, and even from as far afield as Montana! Many favorite artists are returning along with more than 25 percent of the signups being new artists. From Tennessee comes a young emerging artist, Lauchlan Davis, whose vivid oil paintings celebrate diversity and community in exciting flourish.
“She’s playing with style and color in a unique way,” says Susie Scott, Festival chair.
Davis has pursued painting professionally for the last six years, once she graduated from the University of Virginia. Having studied and written about art, once she started painting on her own, she says she found herself already fluent in the language she was just learning to speak.
“I was suddenly at that magic intersection of passion and curiosity that makes practice feel like play. I realized that my surroundings could be broken down into color and shape and that I could piece these fragments back into something new and lovely,” she says.
When asked how she developed her artistic process, Davis replies, “One of the most significant lessons I’ve learned as an artist is to trust the process. The finished artwork isn’t formed in my head before I paint it on the canvas, but I’ve determined what path I’ll follow. Perhaps some glimmer of an idea sparks the first step, but then you are following that idea to its destination without quite knowing where you’ll end up. Each brushstroke is a decision that leads us to the next one, and the magic of the painting is responding honestly to the artwork as it evolves. The challenge of painting is staying in the present moment, refusing to take shortcuts, and embracing the uncertainty. So much of learning to paint has also taught me about living a life.”
More than 100 artists participate in this juried art festival, set each year under the live oaks at Mandarin Community Club. A donation of $2 is suggested at the gates. Parking will be handled off-site with free shuttle service. Food trucks and entertainers are marking their calendars for this rain or shine outdoor event on March 30 and 31, 2024, on Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The Children’s Art Show continues inside the historic clubhouse with local elementary and middle schools participating. There will also be a Green Market offering locally produced, unique products.
Visit mandarinartfestival.com for more information.
Photo courtesy Mandarin Community Club
Lauchlan Davis with some of her work.
