The Lake Worth Street Painting Festival

On Sunday, a few of us drove up from the Grove to the Lake Worth for the 20th annual Street Painting Festival. We try to make it every year. Over 400 artists turn the streets into incredible art. This year's them was Hollywood, favorite scenes or characters were depicted from film; there were a lot of famous faces painted and lots of movie poster replications.

Lake Worth is a small village, much like Coconut Grove, only it's a working village with lots and lots of businesses which line the two major streets, Lucerne and Lake. During the festival, everything is shut down and the streets all become art.

Among the barber shop, the martini bar, the newsstand and the bicycle shop and lots and lots of restaurants, artists do their thing. Lake Worth is what the Grove was and should become again. A small, quint village, where everybody knows your name, but with a functioning central business district.

The beach is right up the road and on either side of the main streets, small cottages line the town blocks. People walk or bicycle right to the center of town.

This street painting festival has been attempted in Coconut Grove before, but it never took off. This is something that could really take over Commodore Plaza for a weekend. 

Music, food, friends and lots of art was what Lake Worth was all about this past weekend. The artists start their work on Saturday and finish up on Sunday.

At left are former Grovites Fred Hunt and AnnaMaria Windisch-Hunt with Theresa Callouri. The Fred and AnnaMaria now live in Lake Worth, AnnaMaria publishes a great blog called Lake Worth Every Minute, you can really get a flavor for the town from viewing the blog. It's sort of what I do but in a much more artistic and gentler manner.

This coming weekend's Gifford Lane Art Stroll is a nice taste of the old Grove. It reminds me of Lake Worth's event and vice versa.