A dozen new Festival of Arts artists set to have work shown in Fresh Faces exhibit

Laguna Beach’s art festival season has not quite arrived, but those anxiously awaiting it can get a preview of what is to come beginning this weekend.

The Festival of Arts will showcase the work of a dozen new artists juried into its Fine Art Show for this summer in the Fresh Faces exhibit set to open Saturday. The introductory show will run April 15 through June 1 at the foaSOUTH gallery located inside Active Culture, 1006 S. Coast Hwy.

Some of the artists waited a long time to make their debut at the festival. Jill Maytorena, a mixed media artist, will be featured in the show for the first time at the age of 57.

Maytorena has established local connections, having earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts from the Laguna College of Art and Design. The Dana Point resident also spent a decade as an art teacher at Saddleback Valley Christian schools.

“As far as the late blooming, all of that, I have made a decision to ignore that completely and to not be in that headspace for me, where it’s like, ‘Oh, is it too late? Is there enough time?’” Maytorena said. “ ... This is the journey that I’ve been on. The wealth of years that I have show in my work. I bring my life experience to my easel, and in a way that is very rich.”

Colleen Premer, 60, is also among a group of 17 artists that will exhibit in the Festival of Arts Fine Art Show for the first time this summer. Her mother, Elaine Kennedy, exhibited at the Sawdust Art Festival, primarily as a painter, when Colleen was growing up.

Colleen Premer will be among the first-time Festival of Arts exhibitors showcased in the Fresh Faces exhibit opening April 15.

(Courtesy of the Festival of Arts)

“I was always exposed to art my whole life, just growing up with a mom that was a very prolific artist,” Premer, a Newport Beach resident, said. “[I] always drew and colored and painted, but I always thought she was the artist, not me. I was a writer, so I had that side. That’s why I was a journalism major in college.

“In the ’80s, she bought me a birthday gift, a weekend at Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, a printmaking weekend, and I fell in love with the process and have been doing that for almost 40 years.”

Maytorena and Premer said in separate interviews Thursday they were honored to be juried into the Festival of Arts Fine Art Show, which will open to the public on July 5. It was the first time that either had submitted an application for consideration.

“We are very excited to have 12 of the 17 new artists joining us for [the Fresh Faces] exhibit,” Christine Georgantas, director of exhibits for the Festival of Arts, said in a statement. “This exhibit presents an incredible array of artworks that reflect the creativity and high-quality standards that have become synonymous with the Festival of Arts.”

The other artists featured in the Fresh Faces exhibit are Kevin Avery, Mustapha El Basri, Rowan Foley, Beau Johnston, Daniel Monroe, Cindy Motley, James Pearce, Dominic Petruzzi, Courtney Ryan and Eri Sugimoto. The range of mediums includes ceramics, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography and printmaking.

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