CHALK ART

Bayshore Town Center sponsored a chalk art contest earlier this month.  I'm not sure how it was structured, but it was juried and featured contests in a number of categories, such as under age 19, best use of color, and people's choice.  We were out of town on the weekend it was held but did get back Sunday afternoon and I took my camera there that evening to check it out.

It turns out that I got there just in time to look at the entries and take some shots.  There were a total of about 60 entries.  Just as I finished my first circuit of the drawings, the street was opened to vehicular traffic and within a couple of minutes the drawings were effectively being destroyed by tire tracks.

Some of the drawings were fairly rudimentary and I assume were drawn by younger contestants.  Others showed more sophistication but were of mundane subject matter.  I shot a number of those, but am only presenting a couple here just to illustrate their general quality.

 

Quite good, really.  Others, while not particularly striking, showed some clever technique, such as the following.

Others showed what I thought were genuine artistic qualities.  The following, for example, was judged the winner in the under 19 category.  

According to the legend accompanying the drawing, this artist was only 14 years old.  Pretty impressive, despite the tire track on the angel's face.

Here is a shot of a detail of one of the drawings, showing the amount of work that went into some of these efforts.

A few of the pieces not only demonstrated artistic ability, they included something of a sinister quality that I found appealing.

The following was awarded best in show honors.  And it is very good, but I didn't really care for the subject matter.  The figures seem to involve different artistic styles, at least to my eye.

Here is another entry that I thought demonstrated great ability to provide subtle shading in a difficult medium.

One of the tactical mistakes I made was that I was reticent to walk on the drawings.  This despite the fact that other pedestrians were doing that.  As a result, some of my shots were taken at an oblique angle, as in the following photo of what was my favorite entry.

This was judged second overall and was voted number one in the people's choice category.

Here is another shot of the subject's face that I think shows some real artistic sensibility.

Chalk drawings are one of those art forms that, like ice and sand sculpturing, are, by their very nature, ephemeral.  I'm not sure how well I could work in such a temporary medium.

John