Placencia hosts art festival
It is best known for its endless sandy beach, laid back atmosphere, and a funky sidewalk that runs the length of the village. But over the Valentine’s Day weekend Placencia aims to put itself on the map as a hotspot for art. Here’s a preview of what you can expect.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
It is all here, the full gamut of art: in the amazing realism of Anton Leslie, the bold lines of Lola Delgado, the colourful surrealism of Greta Leslie, and in the playful fantasy of Ernest Garcia…the Placencia peninsula is as steeped in talent as it is in colour.
Their names might be unfamiliar, but their work speaks for itself. To celebrate these talented men and women, on February fourteenth and fifteenth, Placencia will hold its first annual art festival. Some thirty artists will line the length of the village’s trademark sidewalk, boasting their treasured pieces of paint, iron, and spoken word.
Anton Leslie, Artist
“Art comes with style. Everybody has his own style and you can’t get away from it when you go and sit with it, you go with the flow.”
For artists like Anton Leslie, the festival could be a springboard to a worldwide audience.
Anton Leslie
“I’ve been working here for a long time and people don’t even know me in Belize City, in Dangriga, just here. I have enough work here. It sells right here. All my work is on the walls all over the place, so I don’t really need to go anywhere for work. There’s enough right here, but I would definitely love to be known over yonder you know, outside.”
Lola Delgado, Artist
“Being an artist is hard and you are never really rich until after you’ve died then you become a millionaire, usually noh? If you are an artist and you have art in you, you have to paint if you have to do your craft whatever there is to do, you have to get it done. So just do it and bring it out and somebody is going to love it.”
Ernest Garcia, Artist
“I’m into painting, I tie flies for fly fishing, I’m playing soccer with Sagitun. And besides that, I do diving for lobster and conch and whatever.”
Janelle Chanona
“Now, is that what an artist has to do in Placencia to survive?”
Ernest Garcia
“Not really, I do it for fun and that’s what I like doing so… What I paint are scenes that have a meaning to me and what I remember, what I see when I go out to the sea. And usually I try to paint things that has a meaning, it’s not just beauty and the way it looks.”
According to the festival organisers, most of the pieces will be on sale and the proceeds of the event itself will go toward training programmes and resources for the peninsula’s budding artists.
Jack Linker, Festival Organizer
“One of the things we’re trying to do is give kids a chance to see what the different artists do. We’ll have demonstrations on how to mix colours, how to cut paper for making cards, stuff for the kids and stuff for the adults. We have one man who has been coming Belize for years and years. And some of the artists, the local artists are good because of his background and he’s coming down just to put on some workshops for the local artists too.”
The artists have set the stage. Now, they need the audience.
Greta Leslie, Artist
“Just to come to the festival and bring a fat wallet with you and have some space in your house that you know you need to fill with some nice art and we’ll surely fill it for you with the artists that we have here and we have coming from all over, the States, Mexico, Guatemala, so there should be something to please everyone.”
Following a Friday night benefit reception, the art festival officially starts on Saturday morning, February fourteenth and runs through to Sunday afternoon. Besides your wallet, you may also want to bring a swimsuit.
