The booths are inviting, filled with handcrafted creations made by local and guest artists and artisans for the Sawdust Art Festival’s Winter Fantasy – just in time for the holidays.
One can imagine Santa making a wish list of his own, ready to fill his sack with gifts for the discerning of all ages.
Winter Fantasy in Laguna Beach runs through Dec. 22 and is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The festival is celebrating its 33rd birthday this year, with more than 180 artists displaying their wares in new and refurbished booths built to last into the summer art festival season.
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Artists are allowed to share booths this year, making for a greater variety of crafts than ever before. Visitors can admire and buy works by glass blowers, woodworkers, ceramicists, clothing artists, jewelry makers, mixed-media artists, painters and photographers, sculptors, mosaic artists and more.
Tucked in between are booths with unique items like Adriana Wrzesniewski’s Ukrainian-style painted eggs that span seasons with their beauty (Booth 511). Airbrushed onesies for the littlest tyke hang in another booth.
The Sawdust Summer Festival has been open primarily to Laguna Beach artists since its debut in the mid-1960s, while Winter Fantasy participants come from all over Orange County and beyond.
This year, five artists are Village residents.
Tim Hahne, a watercolor artist and ceramicist, had exhibited at the festivals between 1979 and 1996. He returned in 2021, after a two-decade stint as a Christian missionary in Romania.
In 2020, Hahne, 78, moved to the Village. The pandemic, with its closure of the Clubhouse 4 studios, forced his hand from ceramics to painting.
“Forty years ago, I sold mostly ceramics. Now I sell mostly paintings,” said Hahne, 78. “I actually have painted all my life but not seriously.”
These days, he supervises the ceramics studio at Clubhouse 4.
Given his residence in the Village, trees serve as a major inspiration.
“I take pictures of the trees and paint them at home in watercolor and outline and highlight them in ink,” he said. “It’s like painting by numbers except that I create my own numbers.”
Hahne’s ceramics tend toward the utilitarian, with sturdy, decorative plates and cups able to hold generous amounts of coffee or soup (Booth 518).
Visitors checking out the Sawdust history booth at the festival’s entrance will find photos of the first booths built in the ’70s and ’80s. In front of a booth made to resemble a spacecraft stands a young dark-haired man. That would be Starman, now aged 81 and a Village resident better known as Star Shields.
Shields had built a career as a graphic designer and airbrush artist, creating T-shirts with images of rock stars. Now he still airbrushes shirts but has expanded his repertoire to include geometric, floral or abstract designs, or whatever else strikes his fancy.
“Back in high school I started doodling and painting on sweatshirts,” he said. “I graduated in 1961 and just kept on going.”
And he’s been displaying his works at Sawdust for 40 years, he said.
If his designs run the gamut of his imagination, so does the clothing he chooses. For $75, doting grandparents can buy a colorful onesie for their little budding artist. Or, for something temporary, Shields will provide an airbrushed tattoo (Booth 625).
Hedy Buzan, a printmaker and painter who works in pen and ink, acrylics and watercolor, is a 22-year Village resident who maintains a studio in bucolic Laguna Canyon.
As a member of the Garden Club, she derives much inspiration from the vivid plant life for her small oil paintings, she said (Booth 523).
Sheri Cohen, a jeweler, and Brian Giberson, a creator of wall totems and sculptures, share a booth at Winter Fantasy and their lives in Laguna Woods. Cohen’s intricate rings and necklaces are made mostly from silver and bronze, and Giberson’s totems are made mostly from found objects and are inspired by international folklore and his own imagination. They have been at Sawdust for 13 years and have also exhibited at the Festival of Arts (Booth 810).
Some Camera Club members might remember presentations by Paul Renner, a prolific wildlife photographer who recently retired from conducting safaris in Africa. His work at Winter Fantasy bears witness to his keen eye and wide-ranging travels (Booth 322).
Winter Fantasy does not only provide a feast for the eyes and relatively little stress on the wallet, but also offers food, music, entertainment, art classes and visits with Santa. For schedules, classes and performers, go to sawdustartfestival.org/winter.
