Coastal community is steeped in artistic history - City beat: Laguna Beach

In the year 1900, when the seaside city of Laguna Beach, Calif., counted only 10 people as its year-round residents, a painter named Norman St. Clair set up his easel atop a steep, stunning bluff and began to paint. As he captured the light reflecting off the the ocean that warm, breezy day, he had no idea that he had just planted the seeds for a movement that would continue for the next 100 years.

During that same time period, painters George Gardner Symons and William Wendt found solace in Laguna Beach, as well. "They were painting buddies and had been traveling together, and they ended up in Laguna Beach," said Jean Stern, executive director of The Irvine Museum, an art museum located in nearby Irvine, Calif., which specializes in plein aire art of the late-19th and early-20th century. "They were very important in spreading the word. By 1918, they were attracting artists from all over California. It became a very popular place--this beautiful, idyllic little village by the ocean."

These romantic roots grew over the years to establish a strong foundation that nurtures the city both culturally and economically. Laguna Beach not only sees its artists and galleries as something that feeds its soul; it sees its artists and galleries as the way it defines the city, making it an art destination to attract visitors and artists year-round.

"The planning commission identifies public art as an important and essential component of its planning, and that is quite unusual," said Sian Poeschl, arts coordinator for the city of Laguna Beach. "With Southern California as a whole becoming such a huge entity, it's important to have an identity. It's important to ensure that people continue to associate Laguna Beach with the arts."

That mission has been a smashing success. Any given Saturday, hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of tourists wind their way down Laguna's S-shaped streets, poking their heads in and out of the galleries that outnumber clothing shops and restaurants put together. Whether they're purchasing a limited-edition print by a popular artist whose work is found throughout the country or a contemporary piece of unique to a local artist, they know Laguna Beach is a place where they can find art, most specifically plein aire art, which is a French term meaning painting outdoors. "When you walk down the street, you'll see people in big old sunhats doing paintings," said contemporary painter Chris Gwaltney of the city's well-known park that overlooks the ocean.

A contemporary painter, Gwaltney got his start in Laguna Beach the same way the masters did. "Friends I was hanging around with were making a living painting," he said. "So they would invite me out. One friend gave me some acrylic paints for my birthday. He said, `I've seen your drawings. Why don't you come out and paint with us?'"

He did. And from that moment on, he's made a living painting. But it wasn't always easy. Despite Laguna Beach's deep history in the arts, finding success as a contemporary painter did not happen overnight. "We lost money for five years," said Peter Blake of the Peter Blake Gallery, a contemporary gallery that shows Gwaltney's works. "I was showing cutting-edge work in a town that was not used to seeing cutting-edge work."

With the challenge before him, Blake and fellow gallery owner William Debilzan came up with an idea. In February 1998, they and other local gallery owners launched the First Thursday Art Walk, an event which draws thousands from all over Southern California to Laguna Beach on the first Thursday of each month with one thing in mind: art.

"It's much more than a festival; it's a promotional tool," said Poschl, who Blake credits with taking the art walk from its "humble beginnings to a city-wide event."

"We were all broke at the time," Blake said with a laugh. "It was a tough time. There was a severe recession. And we were doing what we could to bring awareness to the arts. It wasn't about sales."

Instead, it was motivated by what true artists are motivated by as well, the need to break down walls so people can share the human experience through art. "Some potential collectors have a perception of going into an art gallery and seeing salespeople dressed in black, giving the hard sell of buying this painting or that, with an accent," said Poschl. "Through these art walks, people can talk to the artists about their work. Then art becomes something they're used to having around, something they're able to talk about, something so familiar they can distinguish what they like about it and what they don't."

But these types of events are rooted in the past as well. In 1918, for example, painter Edgar Payne staged Laguna Beach's first art show by exhibiting 100 paintings in an abandoned city hall building which he converted into an art gallery. "Two thousand people came," said Roberta Haltom, director of the Redfern Gallery, which specializes in California Impressionist art.

In the coming years, the local artists raised money to build the Laguna Beach Art Gallery, which is now the Laguna Art Museum, located on the Coast Highway. And in 1932, they started the Festival of the Arts, the Pageant of the Masters, where thousands still come each year to watch artists re-create famous paintings before their eyes.

As evidenced by these events, said painter Kevin Macpherson, the influence of those early California Impressionists is still felt today. "The collectors of those deceased masters are looking to contemporary artists such as myself because they see the connection between what we do and what they did," he said. "Quite an art community developed in Laguna, so we've kind of resurrected what they did at that time."

SOURCES

* Laguna Beach Art Coordinator, (949) 476-0294

* Peter Blake Gallery, (949) 584-1224

* Redfern Gallery, (949) 497-3356

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