Mission Artists Leave Visitors With Good Impressions

Mission San Juan Capistrano has been big on the arts lately. Its popular summer music series has been bringing visitors in, and this week’s painting contest did the same.

The fifth annual California Art Club Outdoor Painting Festival has featured several area artists who worked on canvas on the mission grounds while visitors watched. The competition began Monday and will end Sunday, when many of the paintings will be for sale. The winners will be announced in a public ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Local residents and tourists seemed to enjoy the artists at work, said mission officials.

Sondra Winston of Laguna Niguel was one of those who wandered around the mission, taking in the many paintings. Not all of the mostly Impressionistic canvases got her approval, but enough did to make the trip worthwhile.

“I have to say that [Impressionistic or more realistic] art is not really my thing. I usually go for abstract, less representational art,” Winston said. “But many of [the paintings] were pretty good. It was a colorful event, with the art and all, and the mission is such an interesting-looking place to begin with. I had a lot of fun.”

So did Richard London of San Juan Capistrano. This was the third year he has attended.

“I will support painting and art any time, anywhere,” he said. “I try to get out for this every time they have it, and wasn’t going to miss it this year. The artwork was as good as it always is.”

The California Art Club, founded in 1909 by artist William Wendt, co-sponsored the event, which is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Joan Irvine Smith Fine Arts Inc. provided the $10,000 in cash prizes.

The mission is at 31522 Camino Capistrano at Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano. Call (949) 248-2048 for information on the mission and the contest. Admission is $4-$5.