Thousands of visitors and artists from around the world flocked to downtown Gainesville.
Streets were closed Saturday and Sunday for the 37th annual Downtown Festival & Art Show, where more than 200 artists sell their original work.
Art ranged from original oil and acrylic paintings, watercolor, sculptures, jewelry, ceramics and photography.
Here are three local artists who were part of it:
Tina Corbett
Tina Corbett, artist and owner of Lanza Gallery & Art Supplies, works her art booth at the 37th Annual Downtown Festival & Art Show Sunday. The painting is called “Me Too.”
Location: High Springs, Florida
For a long time, Tina Corbett painted landscapes, but she’s evolving to abstract realism.
“I take an actual object and paint it in oil more realistically,” she said. “Then I kind of go crazy with the background.”
Although she’s evolving, Corbett, the owner of Lanza Gallery & Art Supplies, goes back to her humble beginnings by painting things like a river in High Springs.
One of her paintings is titled “Me Too” and was inspired by her mother’s Vogue patterns. She originally was going to title it “In Vogue” but changed the name because it was finished when the movement began. The painting depicts women of different cultures and eras, including Marilyn Monroe.
David Sandidge
David Sandidge’s handblown glass displayed at the at the 37th Annual Downtown Festival & Art Show.
Location: Clermont, Florida
David Sandidge spent 20 years hand-blowing glass at Disney theme parks around the world.
After his time working for the mouse, he decided to work for himself.
“Do you know why mermaids wear seashells?” Sandidge, showing his glass mermaid piece said. “Because B-shells are too small. I guess I always wanted to see Ariel take her top off.”
He said his work also includes horses from Ocala, manatees and anything you would find around the Sunshine State.
“Looking around my booth, it’s very Florida,” he said.
Michael Braun
Michael Braun, an artist at the 37th Annual Downtown Festival & Art Show, holds a picture of Jimi Hendrix wearing clothes Braun designed at Woodstock.
Michael Braun started making art in Florida in 1966 by making fringe shirts, motorcycle jackets and crushed velvet pants for Jimi Hendrix.
Another customer of his was wrestler Randy Savage, for whom he hand-painted “Macho Man” on hats for TV every Monday.
“All the things that you’re going to see on the internet that’s nuts and crazy, we made for him,” he said.
In 1996, Braun found out that Steven Spielberg was paying people to paint dinosaurs running across a field. This is when he started painting on the computer through a program called “Painter 1996.” After his first year, he heard discouraging critiques.
Today he still uses Painter, the 2018 version, and virtually hand paints his work that can sell up to $1,400, he said.
“Painting a human on the stage, you’re painting someone and making clothes that they are wearing,” Braun said. “Here, I’m just painting whatever I want to make. I’m painting what I like.”
