On the evening of the third Saturday of every month, the Placerville ArtWalk happens on Historic Main Street in downtown Placerville, California. It is an event that I always enjoy and this year, in particular, has been especially fun since the Gallery that I am in (Gold Country Artists Gallery) has been one of the major sponsors.
Placerville ArtWalk, by the way, is spearheaded by our very own El
Dorado Arts Council.
Placerville
ArtWalk: The Video
I've been taking lots of photos and short videos during the Placerville
ArtWalks this summer and decided to put it all together in a short video
(a little over 6 minutes long.). If you are interested right now, you can
go see it on YouTube here.
I thought I'd delve a little deeper into some parts of the video in the
rest of this post.
Code
Blue
During each of the Placerville ArtWalks, there has been a band playing at
the Bell Tower right in the center of town. In May, the band was Code
Blue and they are a great band that plays 60's rock music. There
were lots of people watching them perform and sometimes getting up to
dance. What a great evening!
In
and Around the Gallery
During the ArtWalks, we have had a lot of people come into the gallery.
The photo at the top of this post shows lots of people in the gallery
during the June ArtWalk event. The June Placerville ArtWalk was one of our
busiest ever, and what makes that amazing is that usually that evening is
not as busy as other third Saturdays because the El Dorado County Fair is
happening that weekend.
Below are a few views in and around the Gallery:
- In the photo on the left, Gold Country artist Chris Navratil helps young lady MaKayla Morris learn about pottery-making
- The center photo shows the front of Gold Country Artists Gallery during one of the ArtWalks
- The photo on the right shows a crowd gathered around Gold Country artist Lorrene Davis as she demonstrates the creation of a piece of silver metal clay jewelry
My
Favorite
I think one of my favorite happenings during the summer Placerville
ArtWalks was watching a band by the name of Diddley
Squat playing at the Bell Tower. They are a blues band from
northeast Texas who are great musicians and real crowd-pleasers. Rick
"Saxman" Sims is one of the band members that I particularly
enjoyed watching and of whom I took lots of photos. The photo on the left
is one of him "serenading" an audience member up close and
personal.
All the Placerville ArtWalks this summer have been great photo
opportunities and it's been fun wandering around and taking pics when I
can during those evenings.
ArtWalks
Coming
We have one more "official" ArtWalk coming up on September 19th,
then the Art & Wine Festival during the third Saturday in October. If
you want to have some fun, plan on coming to Historic Main Street in
downtown Placerville on a third Saturday during the next couple of months.
Free
Stagecoach Rides
By the way, during the afternoon of the third Saturdays of every month
(12pm-4pm), you can have a free stagecoach ride downtown—ahhh, but
that's another story!
More
About the Video
You may be wondering what I used to create the YouTube
video. On every PC there is a resident movie-maker program called
(amazingly enough), Windows
Movie Maker. It is pretty easy to use and great for simple videos.
I like Windows Movie Maker for simple videos, but I am going back to using
Pinnacle
Studio. I have used it in the past and like its capabilities,
versatility and flexibility more than Windows Movie Maker.
If you haven't tried creating a movie for yourself with stills and video,
try it out—it's really fun and no matter if you have a PC or a Mac, you
have the capability built-in (the Mac has iMovie).
One of the other videos I created this summer was about the Wagon Train
& Founder's Day event on Historic Main Street in June, 2009—you can
see that one here.
