Paradise City Arts Festival returns to NorthamptonDate: 10/2/2023 NORTHAMPTON — The Paradise City Arts Festival is returning to the Three County Fairgrounds from Oct. 7-9 for its 29th year.
According to the website, the festival this year will feature around 220 artists and master craft makers showing original works in ceramics, paintings, decorative fiber, art glass, furniture, jewelry, metal, mixed media, photography and more.
Out of those artists, 33 of them are from Western Massachusetts, including Holyoke resident Harold Dumas, a mostly self-taught painter who specializes in realistic oil paintings based on his own photographs.
Dumas’ paintings specifically focus on cityscapes and landscapes throughout Western Massachusetts. His website showcases paintings of significant landmarks like Nick’s Nest, the Holyoke Canal Walkway, Ashley Reservoir and Cracker Barrel Alley in Northampton. He also paints some portraits.
In an interview with Reminder Publishing, Dumas said his earliest artistic influence came from his father, who was skilled in pencil and charcoal portrait drawings.
He said he became interested in painting with oils as a teenager and started following television artists like William Alexander and Bob Ross. Painting was an “on-and-off” hobby for him until he retired as an IT specialist during the coronavirus pandemic.
Since then, he has been fully entrenched in his craft, utilizing YouTube and other sources on the internet to sharpen his skills.
Dumas is one of 42 who are exhibiting for the first time at Paradise City, according to the website. When asked what he is most excited for with Paradise City, he said he hopes to see a lot of collectors there who are interested in his work.
“It’s exciting to be selected for the festival,” Dumas said.
Much like past years, the festival will once again host a theme. This year’s is a special exhibit called “Two x Two.”
“We perceive the world through sets of two, through pairs and twins and diptychs and couples,” reads the Paradise City website description of the theme. “It is so fundamental a theme that artists may not even realize they are using it; we naturally gravitate toward narratives and groupings of two. It is a number we are, just barely, capable of comprehending.”
A 12,000-square-foot dining tent with gourmet food from dozens of local restaurants will also be onsite for festival attendees.
The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday , Oct. 8 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 9. Readers can find more information about the artists and prices by visiting the Paradise City Arts Festival website: https://festivals.paradisecityarts.com/.
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