Kentuck Art Festival

Went down Friday evening and got to visit with both of my dd's and their hubbies. Holly and her dh had tickets to the football game on Saturday so only Emily and myself went to the festival. It was held in Northport, a neighboring town to Tuscaloosa, an older town with a lovely main street, several antique shops and even art galleries. For some reason my dd's have never told me about it or taken me there before this? Will definitely be going back to visit it later on. Didn't think to take a photo of the town.

The Kentuck Art Festival was in a wooded park area and was a much bigger deal than I was anticipating. You can visit the link which will take you directly to the page with a slide show of the work of most of the artists who were there. The art included everything from outsider/folk art to assemblage art to fine paintings. It was all so wonderful! The exhibitors were from all over the U.S. There were mixed media artists whose work I had seen previously online or published(and admired), Lynn Whipple and Mary Beth Shaw. Some of the artists were local so I hope to see some of their work when I go back to visit Northport again or be able to look up the others who are from Alabama and find where they exhibit.

Works by Lynn Whipple:


Works by Mary Beth Shaw:


If I were rich, there was so much I would have loved to purchased! Right now, I did good to pay to get in and only bought some cards that were prints of original works by Mary Beth Shaw. But it was a very memorable, inspiring experience. Took lots of pics that I'll share over the next few days. The weather was wonderful! It was a little cool in the morning, making it a lovely autumn day with temps in the 70's as the day progressed.

You can see from the first photos that some of the artists travel in style. Do you have YOUR ducks in a row? Also there were some very colorful people in attendance. Don't you love their sense of expression! Like I said, I'll share some more shots and will try to get the artists names matched up to them so I can let you know who did the work. The shot below is of a piece done by Aaron Hequembourg. His work was so beautiful, done on reclaimed wood from old homes, it was a mix of painting, wood-burning, and, I think, transfers of printed material, as well as some mixed media.

We will be going back next year and maybe Holly can go with us next time, while the guys all watch football. Here is one last photo for today where Emily went for a contemplative pose in front of the displays of these awesome vessels made out of all kinds of materials. I'm sorry I don't know who did these, but I'll try to figure it out from my program and add it here later. They were great. I have a closeup of one which was very complex. I'll share it another day.