CAREFREE – Fine artists from around the globe will converge along Ho Hum and Easy Streets in downtown Carefree on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, January 20, 21 and 22 for Thunderbird Artists’ 24th Annual Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival. The Carefree show features more than 150 renowned, juried artists who will showcase and sell their original work from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
Watercolor and oil painter Terry Meyer, best known for his paintings of horses, will be the featured artist at the January show. He can’t explain his love affair with painting the four-legged animals, saying simply that he has an indescribable drive to depict horses.
A retired teacher from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Meyer has always loved painting. During a 25-year career teaching middle and high school special education, Meyer would wake up early each morning to paint before he left for work. When he retired, Meyer finally decided to pursue art full time and has been selling his work around the country for the past 10 years.
“Creating art is an in-the-moment kind of thing,” said Meyer. “There’s something that pushes me to paint and put things on canvas. When I’m painting, there’s nothing else in the whole world.”
Most of Meyer’s work comes from a collage of ideas and moments he has personally experienced. While he refers to photographs from time to time to remind him of a specific moment, he does not paint from them.
“A photograph can show you an instant in time, but I’m not painting an instant in time,” said Meyer. “I’m painting things that happen over time. The horse may be standing there, but my painting has to show how the horse got to where it is and that it is ready to go somewhere else. There’s movement even when the horse is standing still.”
Meyer, who builds frames and stretches many of his own canvases, can spend up to an hour in his studio before ever picking up a paint brush.
“When I start to paint, it’s not actually with a brush,” said Meyer. “I spend time looking at my art work and what I’ve done, and I think about what I might do. When I see things start to develop in my mind, that’s when I start mixing colors to paint.”
Meyer is one of 150 fine artists who will participate in January’s three-day event.
The artisans in the Carefree show will display paintings in oil, watercolor, pastel, acrylic, and ink, impressive small, medium and life-sized sculptures, sparkling hand blown glass, baskets, clay, metal, stone, spectacular handcrafted jewelry, exceptional photography and more.
Wine Tastings
The festival combines exquisite fine art with an extensive collection of domestic and imported wines for tasting. For $10, patrons will receive an engraved souvenir wine glass with six tasting tickets, allowing them to walk the streets of downtown Carefree sipping samples, enjoying superb art and listening to live musical entertainment. Additional tasting tickets may be purchased for $1.
A vast array of domestic and imported wines will be available for tasting from local wineries.
Admission to the Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival is $3 for adults, and free for children 17 years or younger. Parking is free all weekend. For more information, call (480) 837-5637 or visit www.ThunderbirdArtists.com.
