Art lovers throughout the Fox Valley made their way to downtown St. Charles over the weekend as the St. Charles Business Alliance offered its 27th annual Fine Art Show, a juried display of more than 100 artists.
The two-day show ran Saturday and Sunday at its usual location in downtown St. Charles on Riverside Avenue between Main Street and Illinois Street.
Jessica Reitsma of Oswego was one of the early attendees on Saturday and said her favorite art form is photography.
“I love it. It’s my favorite – mostly things with nature. I probably have 10 or 15 things scattered around the house,” Reitsma said as she shopped with her mother Teresa Stanis of La Grange. “The thing I’m drawn to most is water and waterfalls.”
St. Charles Business Alliance Director Jenna Sawicki said the actual total of 112 artists at the event “is the most we’ve ever had since I’ve been here, which is 11 years.”
“We’re really excited to utilize more space and be able to showcase all these really creative artists that are coming to St. Charles,” she said. “We’re using more of the footprint behind one of the buildings and while we don’t have a cap on the number of artists, we want to make sure the show flows and we have a good mixture. We want to make sure all of our artists are of a certain caliber.”
While most of the artists at the show were from the Midwest, Sawicki said there were others “that we pull from Florida and Pennsylvania” and other places.
Weather permitting, the show draws around 20,000 people over the course of two days, she said.
“People come to get a sense of community and we definitely pull people from the Tri-Cities but this also pulls people from Chicago because we do have such talented artists,” Sawicki said.
The show also included an activity area for kids where they could paint a car as well as artist demonstrations.
Artist Tina Birkhoff said this was her first year displaying her work at the event and was very excited to be at the show over the weekend.
“I do watercolor flowers and I’ve only done three official art shows so far,” she said. “I love the area and to be here is quite a blessing. My stuff is very bright – it’s like Georgia O’Keeffe. My paintings take anywhere from 25 to 45 hours to do.”
Stanis said she and her daughter have come “at least three times before,” adding that “we might be looking for a birthday present for my daughter since her birthday is in June.”
“Otherwise, we’re just browsing,” she said. “I’ve bought earrings here and a lazy Susan for my daughter. I love ceramics. I love all the art and seeing all the art and wish I was artistic. I’ve been going to art shows for 20 years.”
Maxine Wrobel of Winfield was at the show on Saturday and said she had already “bought an awesome print over there and the title of it was ‘Don’t Talk to Me.’”
“It’s like a surly owl with a cup in its claw. It’s perfect for me,” she said with a laugh. “We’ve been coming for 20 years. I just like to look at everything and see what’s new – what’s the hip new thing and what everyone is doing. This is literally on the calendar every year.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.