Shop small and make a big difference! La Quinta Arts Foundation will present its Thanksgiving weekend edition of Art Under the Umbrellas at Old Town La Quinta on Saturday, November 28, 2015 from 10 am to 4 pm. This date was set to coincide with Small Business Saturday 2015, which has grown into a national movement encouraging people to support small businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Over 80 Southern California and Southwest based artists — each a small business in its own right — will set-up shop along the streets of Old Town to exhibit and sell their original artworks in a wide array of media and price points. This will be the largest Art Under the Umbrellas show of the current season so far, offering patrons a great way to entertain out of town houseguests over the long holiday weekend while getting in some serious gift shopping to boot.
For the second year, Old Town La Quinta has been selected as a Small Business Neighborhood Champion, offering $20 gift certificates for each $100 spent at one or more of its merchants on November 28th. Shoppers are instructed to redeem their receipts at Tarah Jade Accessorized. Artist sales are not included in this promotion.
Lively musical entertainment by the engaging Steve Madaio Band, and a leisurely lunch or cocktails at one of the Old Town eateries will round out the day. New in town is the La Quinta Brewing Co. Old Town Taproom, their first location outside of their brewery, serving award-winning local beer with both indoor and patio seating. Stop by for a swig of one of their newest fall releases.
The post-Thanksgiving show will spotlight two artists, both with unique histories prior to becoming professional artists:
Mark & Kathy Doolittle (Wood/Gourds) – The journey of Mark Doolittle, Ph.D., has taken him from associate professor of medicine at UCLA to that of a full time wood artisan living on the border of Joshua Tree National Park.
Having exhibited in La Quinta Arts Festival for a third time in 2015, Mark and his wife Kathy are teaming up to show their distinctive Gourd Art at Art Under the Umbrellas, along with Mark’s fine crafted woodworks. Kathy’s gourds are created with an unusual style of surface embellishment by applying handmade paper to the gourd, followed by wood burning to achieve a stained glass-like appearance. Mark creates the hand carved gourds, and together their collaboration produces truly unique artwork vessels.
Stephen Schubert (Abstract Painting) – Stephen’s storied past has ranged from working as a bartender in a caboose, designing windows for FAO Schwarz, spinning records during the disco craze, and even acting.
Based in Burbank, Schubert’s artistic process starts with birch panels and a semi-circle of open gallons of paint. Primarily using a spackle knife … dragging, spraying, dripping, smearing and scraping … he lays down up to 15 layers of paint and frequently finishes the piece with a resin topcoat. He often incorporates heavy texture, color fields, realism, words and iridescent mica flecked paints into his work. The end result is a vibrant, colorful contemporary painting.
Art Under the Umbrellas offers free admission and free parking. Old Town La Quinta is located in the Village of La Quinta. Take Washington Street south. Go west on Calle Tampico for two blocks. Old Town La Quinta will be on the left-hand side. Visit www.LQAF.com or call (760) 564-1244 for more information.
