Posted on Thu, Mar. 08, 2007

PEMBROKE PINES

Art Festival in the Pines coming up

Ninth annual Art Festival in the Pines boasts 125 artists, many of them showing there for the first time

BY EILEEN SOLER

Special to The Miami Herald

Pembroke Pines' ninth annual Art Festival in the Pines this weekend guarantees artists galore and a little bit more.

''You'll come Saturday morning and want to stay until Sunday night,'' said chairwoman Rose Colombo.

Hosted by the city's Arts and Culture Advisory Board in the parking area of River of Grass ArtsPark at Southwest 172nd Avenue and Sheridan Street, the juried event promises 125 artists who color the art spectrum with almost every medium, including oil paint, pastels, blown glass, abstract photography, fine jewelry and natural wood sculptures.

Mystical music by wood flute makers Cesar Reyes and Jamie Muenala will provide the perfect backdrop for the oval-shaped midway of tents.

Prominently displayed in the center will be 2007 poster artist Lyle Dubin of Hollywood. Dubin, 77, a newcomer to the South Florida art scene, will display some of the 200 works he's created since becoming a painter just three years ago.

''When I came to the Pembroke Pines art show before, I was a guest, a wannabe. This year, I'll get my 15 minutes of fame,'' he said.

NIGHT CLASS

Dubin said he was a race-car driver ''once upon a time'' who gave up the fast life for marriage, children and a career in real estate. In 2004, he picked up a paintbrush during a night class at Hollywood Hills High School and never looked back.

''I'm like the ballerina in the movie The Red Shoes. Her teacher told her not to put the shoes on but she did anyway and then she couldn't stop dancing,'' Dubin said. ``Now, I can't stop painting, and every inch of my house is so filled with art that even the dust can't settle.''

Dubin, who has starred in juried shows at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood and the Hollywood Beach Culture & Community Center, calls the Pembroke Pines art festival ``marvelous, uplifting, homespun -- a big art party in a little town.''

Lori Allison, the city's assistant cultural arts coordinator, said the party includes another fairly new but younger face in the South Florida art world -- teenager Jared Seff of Weston, whose portrait of Paul McCartney attracted the ex-Beatle's attention in 2005 and whose painting of Bill Clinton hangs in the Bill Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark.

''We're not going to see a lot of the same artists from the past. This year will be more of the new,'' Allison said.

Speaking of new, Allison said, children will get hands-on chances to dabble in art with six free, kids-only projects provided by the Pembroke Pines Parks and Recreation Department.

CAMERA CLUB

Meanwhile, adults will be treated to demonstrations and discussions presented by the West Pines Camera Club and the Gold Coast Woodturners. The Southwest Regional Library will host a sidewalk book sale, and at 2 p.m. inside the library, a presentation by the Southwest Broward art advocacy group the Culture Vultures features a discussion about Haitian culture.

''It's an event for the whole family, from grandma to the smallest of children,'' chairwoman Colombo said.