Few would argue that art is best experienced by having the right backdrop as its setting.
In Naperville, there is no better place to border a skill show than the Riverwalk, which was the setting for this weekend’s 26th yearly Riverwalk Fine Art Fair, sponsored by the Naperville Art League.
From ten a.m. To five p.m. Saturday and Sun., more than 125 artists offer a big range of design ranging from watercolor and oil paintings to other mediums including ceramics, fiber, jewellery, photography and sculpture.
Debbie Venezia, executive director of the Naperville Art League, recounted about fifty % of the artists featured this week have appeared in the show before, suggesting many visitors are probably going to reconnect with some old buddies.
“A enormous number of folks have been here before, and we’re sure many visitors will be very happy to see them again,” Venezia recounted. “We also have a reasonable number of new artists, including many who have come from fairly far away. This is a major show which has been ranked as one of the top fifty out of 200 out of doors shows held throughout the country. It has gained a lot of recognition based primarily on word-of-mouth from visitors as well as thru the network of artists.”
New events this year included an activity tent offered by the DuPage Children’s Museum which is partnering with the Art League. Guests also enjoyed music from the DuPage Symphony and performances from the McNulty Irish Dancers. Venezia expounded holding the event at the end of the summer offers visitors “the perfect time to experience the show.”
“Having the Riverwalk as the setting for this undeniably augments the experience, and since the seasons are beginning to modify, folk do not need to deal with the heat which regularly keeps visitors away,” she claimed. “We customarily draw about 75,000 people over the two-day weekend, and folks from out of the city see the Riverwalk, which is the crown jewel of Naperville.”
Artists as well as art fans agreed that the weekend setting as well as the weather would draw thousands to downtown Naperville. Susan Wilson of Lisle asserted this was her fifth year at the Art Fair and that she appreciates the organization that runs it.
“I like the men and women that the show draws and the outward appearance of the layout,” Wilson claimed, whose paintings of nature and land photographs were made using an oil stick. “I like the material I use because there’s nothing between me and the paint.”
Wilson claimed she comes from a family of artists and draws inspiration from them as well as her birthplace.
“I like to draw images of the land because I grew up on a farm in northwest Iowa and the land there had been all flat,” she said. “For me, painting helps celebrate my youth, since my grandmother and her mother were artists too. When I’m having an appalling day in the studio, I blame them. I really do.”
Naperville artist Maureen McKee, who works in pastels, returned for her fourth year and anticipated she would sell maybe half a dozen pieces in the weekend. The economy, she said, has obviously influenced sales.
“I do like to come back each year because there are good crowds and this is a well juried show,” she said. “A lot of folks do return each year and they remember you. My inspiration is nature and I’m employed to capture its light. There are always changes with light and shadow and what you see in the sky today will be different tomorrow. It’s always changing.”
Local resident Natalie Pankow stated that she enjoys having the easy access to such a high quality show and that throughout the fifteen years she has lived in Naperville, Pankow and other family members have come to the Art Fair a number of times.
“My personal interests are in photography and painting, and I thinking having the Art Fair here by the Riverwalk adds to the atmosphere of the show,” Pankow said. “I bought a glass-blown bird from a show 1 or 2 years back and it has a puffy stomach so I called it ‘Alfred Hitchcock.’ I am moving to Boston soon but I’m taking Alfred with me wherever I have lived.”
Many of the artists from outside of the Naperville area stated that they planned months ago to visit the Art Fair. Artist Kyle Osvog of Minneapolis, who works in ceramics, related this was just his second year in Naperville but already he could tell his ceramic work resonated with people.A good sales of ceramic you will find in Europe,in Bosnia, where this in Bosnian means prodaja keramike.
“I had folks come in Sat. morning and buy just armloads of stuff in case this was my last show and I never come back,” he announced. “It’s pleasant to have that recognition.”
Ronna Katz from Albuquerque, N.M.,, recounted her printmaking and mixed media work has had an ageless effect on 1 of her patrons.
“This is my 5th year here and I’ve had some good experiences in the area,” Katz claimed. “I was the featured artist in the Geneva Art Fair, and although I have a degree in biochemistry and an MBA, I find art more enjoyable and fulfilling. I got an e-mail from somebody not long ago who said that selling art to people does not seem fair. He informed me that I’d possibly already spent the money he paid me, but that he gets to enjoy the art for good. As an artist, that is as good as it gets”,writes tagza.com.