Visitors to downtown Davis will be seeing double – or maybe even quintuple – as they walk the streets Saturday, but it won't have anything to do with the Wicky Wacky Woos served at Bar Bernardo.
Ten master artists and a number of other professionals will be painting streetscapes and buildings around the city as part of Davis' Great California Paint Out, and painters with a range of skills will be setting up an easel and canvas to join them. Each will capture a singular vision of what they see.
Mike Bagdonas, Marie-Therese Brown, Philippe Gandiol, Beth Winfield and Leslie Toms are among the artists who will participate from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Winfield has already started her painting and will be finishing it at the event.
Toms, a Sacramento native, said part of the fun will be seeing what emerges on the canvases around her: "It's exciting to paint alongside and see what they do with the same subject matter."
City officials expect about 100 artists downtown on Saturday and 2,000 spectators. Davis Mayor Joe Krovoza, along with a representative from event co-sponsor Utrecht Art Supplies of Sacramento, will recognize outstanding work from the day at a 7 p.m. reception at John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St.
Krovoza isn't sure what to expect, and he sees that as a good thing. "Let's mix creative painters, young and old, experienced and not, and see what happens," he said. "That's the beauty of an event like this."
The Great California Paint Out, as the Davis event has been dubbed, will be the only one on the West Coast held in conjunction with the International Plein Air Painters Paint Out U.S. and Worldwide.
Natsoulas, the gallery owner who is co-sponsoring the event, said the plein air event will be an opportunity for people to get to know the artists as they create their work.
"Many in the public don't understand the creative process of making art," he said. "The idea that we will have every medium and every genre from abstract to superrealism will give the public a great opportunity."
Krovoza, who has original artwork on his walls at home, said he feels that knowing the artist who produced the work is just as important as owning the art.THE GREAT CALIFORNIA PAINT OUT
What: Master painters, recreational artists and many in between will paint in the open air – or plein air, as the French say.
When: Plein-air painting from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday; reception from 7-10 p.m.
Where: Plein-air painting in downtown Davis; reception at John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St., Davis
Cost: Free
Information: (530) 756-3938, www.natsoulas.com
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