6th Annual Boca Raton Fine Art Show

The Boca Raton Fine Art Show is rated among the 200 best art shows in all of the world, according to Sunshine Artist Magazine. Next week, the show is returning to Palm Beach County and you and thousands of other people will get a chance to see why this is one of the must-watch art appreciation events in the country.

This show is free to the public and will take place across two days: Saturday, January 24 and Sunday, January 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, along Federal Highway in downtown Boca Raton. Federal Highway, Palmetto Park Road and Sanborn Square Park will be filled with artists and their works. Federal Highway will be closed to automobile traffic starting on Friday, January 23 at 1 p.m. so organizers can set up the event, and it will remain closed to cars through to Sunday, January 25 at 10 p.m.

This art show is a mixture of exhibition and contest. A panel of professionals make up the Art Show jury and will be reviewing works of art up and down Federal Highway, and at the end of the weekend, prizes will be given to the winners in their respective categories. The categories open for judging are paint, clay, glass, sculpture, wood, fiber, jewelry, and photography.

Hundreds of artists in the aforementioned fields, as well as artists who specialize in other media, will be present to answer questions about their works and to take special orders for new pieces. Some pieces on display will be available for purchase as well; inquire with each artist as to which pieces are available for that purpose. Many of these artists travel from around the world to give visitors live exhibitions of their works, and for quite a few of them, this will be the only time this year you will see them in Florida, so don’t be scared to ask any questions!

One such artist is RL Brethauer who gets his inspiration and creations from the wet lands of the costal South.  RL’s nature enhanced pieces of art will warm the soul, beautify the home, and provide an heirloom worthy of future generations of art aficionados. No piece is ever duplicated, as Mother Nature is selective in providing the design, while RL uses his skill to refine and turn these pieces into beautiful pieces of art. Such became his motto, “Mother Nature designed, Artist refined.”

A man with no passion is a man with no purpose; this mantra was the beginning of RL’s art career and creator of driftwood ships with vintage metal sails.  RL has won many awards for his ships, which are displayed in some of the finest homes in America. Each ship has a name that is only used once, befitting nautical tradition; when a person acquires one of these pieces of art, the name goes with the ship forever.

RL lives in Savannah, Georgia with his partner Julian, and together they inspire each other. RL builds the ships and Julian researches and writes the stories; RL refers to him as his “word man.”  From this partnership arose the La Collection de la Novedad, which is an exclusive made to order novelty collection named for a special event, person, or tradition.

RL Said, “I have always appreciated the elegance of simple beauty and my goal is to give the ships I create movement while they are standing still. From these thoughts, I have collected vintage metal from throughout the South for my sails and scoured the shores for the perfect piece of driftwood to create the hulls. Preparation is a time intensive process where I select the perfect piece of driftwood for the hull and create the sails from my collection of reclaimed metal roofs that are 70 – 130 years old.”

There will be live entertainment performed during the weekend in an area separate from the artists and their collections. One of the headlining performers will be Vladimir Gorodkin, who specializes in playing an instrument native to his home country of Belarus, called the “tsimbaly.” The other headlining performer is Janet Spahr, who plays music with a handpan. The soothing sounds are conducive to stress reduction and she has even released CDs that can be used for sleep and meditation purposes. Both of these artists will be performing between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on both days of the art show.

Sponsors of the Boca Raton Fine Art Show include HotWorks Fine Art and Craft Shows, Downtown Boca Raton, The Sun-Sentinel, The New York Times, WLRN-FM, WXEL-TV PBS for the Palm Beaches, iHeartRadio and Boca Delray Life.

For more information, visit hotworks.org/bocaratonfineartshow.

Mike Halterman

Mike Halterman has been the editor of Hotspots Central since its launch in July 2016. He joined the Hotspots Media Group family as editor of Hotspots' South Florida magazine in June 2013. A former "40 Under 40" honoree in The Advocate magazine, Mike lives in the Tampa Bay area.

See Full Bio