Summerlin Art Festival to return for 19th year Oct. 12-13

More than 100 artists and craftsmen from across the southwestern U.S. have signed on to display their works and offer unique items at the 19th annual Summerlin Art Festival, planned for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 12-13 at Summerlin Centre Community Park, 1800 S. Town Center Drive.

The free event is set to feature artistic creations including paintings, glass works, pottery, jewelry, metal works, sculpture and mixed media. Attendees can also expect entertainment, including live music, dance, food and art demonstrations and children’s activities. Food and drink options also will be available for purchase. Approximately 10,000 people are expected to attend each day.

One of the artisans set to have a booth is John Eugster. View readers may recall his name. He is a wood craftsman who was featured in a recent issue.

Eugster plans to have about 40 pieces for sale. He chooses different wood species — Brazilian rosewood, walnut, birdseye maple — so the grain and color are as much an element as the function of a piece.

“One piece is made with spalted maple, wood with fungus in it,” he said. “It’s gorgeous (and) has these black striations in it.”

Pieces are handcrafted one at a time utilizing traditional joinery techniques and oil finishes. He also makes custom furniture and boxes designed for games, pistols and cremation remains.

“To me, it’s all about the wood,” Eugster said.

For his wife, Diane, it’s all about rag dolls. She plans to share his booth to sell her handmade dolls, which are made from recycled materials.

Anna See’s artistic discipline is printmaking, specifically hand-pulled linocut prints. They are created by using multiple hand-carved linoleum mounted wood blocks, one for each color. There can be as many as six layers.

The process is labor-intensive and requires about 30 hours to create a piece. The oil colors are mixed and rolled out and printed by hand after carefully burnishing with a spoon. The final result is original, and no two prints come out alike.

“The hardest part is aligning each piece to the paper because every color is a different carved layer, and you have to match up each layer exactly,” she said. “That’s all hand registration, so each print is a little ‘off,’ but I think that adds to the charm.”

She said her carving was not as precise as a machine but that her patrons seem to prefer that.

“It’s what gives it a handmade, weathered feel,” she said.

See also plans to have handpainted shoes and lamp shades at her booth as well as a new project which she called Cities of the World — prints of iconic cities such as Boston, Copenhagen and Venice.

Erin Hanson now lives in Burbank, Calif., and paints in oils and acrylics. A rock climber, she moved to Las Vegas in 2005 but had to wait for her apartment’s electricity to be turned on. So, she went to Red Rock Canyon to camp out for the weekend. It turned into an epiphany.

“I found something that I could paint over and over and over,” she said of the area. “As a painter, you want something that will consolidate your style, have a consistent theme. So, for me, it was Red Rock Canyon. For two years, that’s all I painted.”

Through her rock climbing, she seeks out abstract shapes in the landscapes, then recreates them using a high-contrast under painting. Hanson adds paint quickly, wet-on-wet style, without reworking the brush strokes. Sometimes, she takes her brushes and paints with her to the wilderness to paint as soon as she’s inspired.

“I want to capture the emotion of being outdoors,” Hanson said.

New to this year’s festival is the Discovery Children’s Museum’s chalk art expo using the sidewalk for a canvas. Featured chalk artist Donovan Fitzgerald, owner of Fitzgerald Artworks, has been tapped to create a classical reproduction during the event.

Non-competing artists can add their creation for $10, which includes sidewalk space and chalk. All fees must be paid in full via cash or cashier’s check made out to Discovery Children’s Museum.

Check-in is at 9 a.m. Oct 12 at the check-in booth near the Children’s Pavilion on the Town Center Drive side of the park. The competition is set from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 12 and 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 13. Winners are set to be announced at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 13.

For more information, visit summerlinartfestival.com.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.