SOUL FOOD:

A church rarely functions as an art gallery, however much its worshipers may adore art. But from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral in Fountain Valley will host its first art festival.

Works by as many as 15 artists will be shown and, for the most part, be on sale. Among the artists, Vilit Saltus, Sylvia Chase, Tess Stevens, Sarah Creek, Emma Craig, Dolores Novak and Rosie Grogan, who lives here in Surf City, are members of the Huntington Beach Art League.

Stevens, Creek, Craig and Novak are members of the Anglican parish as well. Sarah Desborough, a parishioner and event organizer, wants people to know this is not an amateur arts and crafts” affair.

“It will be a fun afternoon for people to stroll in the sun, drink some wine, listen to an acoustic guitarist [and chat] with these very fascinating artists about their art,” she said. Besides art, wine and cheese will be available for purchase during the free event.

Several of the artists showing their work paint plein air, capturing landscapes on location. Many of their watercolors, pastels and oil paintings portray the Southern California outdoors.

Some artists, like Tom Relth, a former professor of printmaking and art history at Biola University, also paint in the south of France.

Bernard Jacoupy, grandson of 20th-century Catalan aquarellist Andre Montpellier, will exhibit several paintings by the late artist said to have been a mentor and confidant to others, including Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. Montpellier lithographs, but not his paintings, will be for sale.

Vandelli, the official artist for the Swiss Montreux Jazz Festival, will exhibit three original oils. Then there’s the work of Irvine artist Andrea Moni. Her medium is paint, and found or recycled materials. She has founded a program called Go Fish (gogofish.org) through which she teaches children in El Nino, Mexico, to create art from recycled materials, too.

Saturday, Moni will display artwork by El Nino’s children along with hers. Proceeds from the sale of their work and a portion of the sales of hers, will go to them.

Similarly, Creek will donate funds to the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. in memory of her mother and other relatives lost to the disease.

Artists will donate 25% of their sales to All Saints’ Cathedral’s organ project. Some have also donated a painting to be raffled at the festival for this cause.

“At the root of Anglican church music is the organ,” said the Rev. Daren K. Williams, who is rector, priest and organist for the parish as well as bishop of its diocese, the Diocese of the West of the Anglican Church in America.

Williams now plays the opening hymn for Masses before he is otherwise occupied at the altar. Then the congregation is left to sing a cappella.

A new Allen organ would enable Williams to pre-record hymns to be played during Mass. Such an organ would, he said, satisfy the parish’s musical needs “with beauty and dignity.”

To that end, his daughter, Jennifer Terpstra, chairwoman of the art department at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, will also offer oil and watercolor paintings.

On May 31, the church will also hold a hymnathon to raise funds.

All are welcome. Donations appreciated. Whether or not you’re familiar with Anglican church music, you owe it to yourself to drop by.

MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at michele@soulfoodfiles.com.