Local Artists Collaborate on Huge Street Painting in Lake Worth

Patrick Pierson and me with the finished 3D chalk art at Lake Worth in 2015. Photo by Craig Houdeshell, Best Light Photography.

This past weekend in Lake Worth was the 21st Street Painting Festival.  This was my 11th year, and 10th year as a featured artist.  I had met Patrick Pierson about a year ago at the Disney Festival of the Masters, and then saw him at Sunfest.  I really liked his work and thought is would be great for street paintings (colorful and fanciful and fun).  I approached him with the idea of a collaboration and he was all for it. 

About 2 months before the event, I chose one of his works that I thought would make a good 3D street painting.  I sent him the image and he loved the concept.  We spent about 3 hours doing layout on site on Friday afternoon, preparing the surface with washable tempera paint and using a template to sketch in the lines.  We started the serious chalking on Saturday around 9am and worked until about 6pm.  We did have to break for lunch, and then cover for about an hour for a light rain in the middle of the day, but it didn't do any damage. 

Sunday, Patrick returned and we were joined by my colleague, Nate Baranowski.  The finished piece took about 23 hours of work onsite, and was 12' wide x 27' long.  With absolutely beautiful weather, which was forecasted to be rainy, we finished around 1:30pm.  The turnout was huge, one of the best we had ever seen at this event.  There was a line about 15 to 20 deep to look through the lens and take photos all day.


Thanks again to Maryanne Webber and the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival for putting this wonderful show on each year.  It is the biggest in the US, maybe the world with 600 artists participating and 250 pieces of art being created over the weekend.  South Florida is lucky to have this amazing event.

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