SARASOTA — The 37th annual St. Armands Circle Art Festival will be presented on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14-15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at St. Armands Circle, Sarasota.
Admission is free. Visit www.artfestival.com.
If you’re considering a visit to Sarasota, be sure to include this event in your itinerary. Just a short distance from Sarasota lies St. Armands Key, an island in Sarasota Bay. Connected to the mainland by the John Ringling Causeway, the island is a scenic retreat from the fast pace of city life. This charming destination offers a delightful escape, featuring an array of upscale shops and gourmet dining options. With its unique blend of history, beauty, and concept, St. Armands promises an unforgettable experience for all who visit.
During the festival, attendees will have the opportunity to explore creations from the finest local and national artists and crafters, including both established festival favorites and emerging talents in the contemporary art scene.
The participating artists will bring their original works, which will be displayed gallery-style.
As the nation’s largest art festival producer, Howard Alan Events sets the gold standard for juried outdoor art shows. With a reputation built on over three decades of excellence, HAE takes pride in being the leading and most respected name in the industry, bringing world-class artwork to premier locations across the United States.
Among the scheduled festival participants is Cameron Allen, a metal artist from Port St. Lucie. He creates contemporary wall sculptures that merge precision, color and movement.
“My work transforms raw aluminum into reflective, dimensional pieces that change with the light, inviting viewers to experience something new every time they look,” Allen explains on his website. “Each sculpture starts as a simple sketch before I bring it to life with high-speed rotary tools, hand-ground textures, and layered pigments. The finishing touch — a high gloss resin coat — creates a striking interplay between color and metallic texture, giving every piece a sense of depth and motion.”
Artist Victoria Cooley was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, but she has lived in Sarasota for most of her life. After graduating with a BFA from Ringling School of Art and Design in 1986, she started exhibiting regularly throughout the northeast. As she raised her three children, she remained active in the arts with mural painting, greeting card design, annual one-person exhibits in her native Nantucket, and operating her own gallery in Towles Court, Sarasota.
Currently, Cooley shows her work at local outdoor art festivals and through her online gallery at baileycooley.com.
According to her website, Jennifer Peck, a mixed media artist, constructs intricately detailed multilayered works of art, mostly out of paint and paper, with an array of other dimensional materials. Her love for coastal life inspired a move from Texas to the shores of Sarasota, where the Gulf Coast’s beaches provide fresh inspiration.
After 10 years operating PeckArts gallery in Texas, she’s prioritized the creative side of an artist’s life, and now creates in her home studio.
“I paint a background, cut paper by hand for weeks, and layer it into coastal scenes that make people smile,” Peck says. “Then I hang it all under a white tent, nearly every weekend from November to April.”
Ruben Dario Medina opened his own studio in Milan, Italy, in 2003. According to his website, there he specialized in “monumental sculptures,” perfecting his craft in working marble with a process based on a 19th-century classical technique, which did not involve the use of industrial machinery. After living in Italy for 17 years, he immigrated to America. His work can be found at art shows and in galleries throughout Florida.
“My art, at this moment, tries to highlight the elements of beauty and nature that surrounds me,” Medina says on his website. “The seabed has a great expressive character given by the texture and complexity of the shapes. The figures that I model are graceful and stylized, clean and in sharp contrast to marine elements such as shells, barnacles and corals.”