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| Captain Hook & Peter Pan in 3D on the Handelskad. |
This was the second year for "The Colors of Willemstad" and was put on by Dutch Dream. Five artists, including me, were brought in to give workshops and chalk during the event. Since I had a long narrow area to work with, I tried to look for art that was sea themed and would fit the area. I found this picture on the internet, and was an original painting credited to an artist named Invernalia. Piece was 10 feet across by 30 feet long and took about 22 hours (3 days) to complete and was my largest piece to date. I put down a layer of tempera paint as the base, but it was all done in chalk. It was tough on the paver bricks and it used up most of my green and grey chalk! The heat wasn't too bad until Sunday afternoon when the sun came out full force.
The crowd was made up of local Dutch and native islanders, plus cruise ship vacationers. The city has a port that docks at least one, sometimes two large ships every day. They speak 4 different languages on the island, which sometimes made communication a little difficult, but we managed.
Luckily I had worked early and late the days before and took advantage of the cooler times of the day. The steady breeze off the water was also nice. Because I was next to the main "drag", there was a constant slow flow of cars going past me, many with people hanging out the windows, giving me the thumbs up sign! Craig was very busy taking both still photos and video footage of all of the artists during the event and the workshops and all the other performing artists. Click here to see video.
Before the event on the weekend, I gave two workshops to the local artists and high school kids. It was great - everyone was excited to get started chalking. I was impressed with how many talented kids there were at this school, and with their art teacher, Ailsa Anastatia. We met so many great people that were very warm and welcoming, that we hope to return again soon.
