Pageant of the Masters-Media Night

In the beginning of June, Christopher and I had the unique opportunity to join our friend Ernie Castello, a news reporter with OC Skyline, at the Pageant of the Masters Media Night. My dad used to take his Choirs from Santa Ana High School to the Pageant for years and years, but I, personally, had never gone. Since I'd heard great things about this art pageant, I was stoked to have the opportunity to go. Media night is a night at the beginning of summer when everyone from the media (eg television channels, newspapers, journals, magazines, etc.) could come and get a preview of what would happen throughout the summer. There were a few artists' work displayed with demonstrations in their medium of art, wine and chocolate tasting by the Ritz Carlton, a grand tour of the behind the scenes studios, and a preview of a few of the famous pieces on stage, followed by an after-party complete with yummy foods, wines, and desserts at Tivoli Terrace! It was definitely a packed evening and I am so glad I got to attend, and shoot along with the esteemed members of Associated Press and other VIP members of the press! Here's just a few shots from the evening...

Our name tags... (we're such nerds...)

Artists' live demonstrations of their medium...

Mini workshops on how to do the different featured mediums at home... this one is print making. They demonstrated how to roll out the ink and create custom prints...

Here's a shot of the artists finishing up some of the backdrops that are being used this summer in the pageant. These artists are GOOD... let me tell you! So talented to be able to recreate masterpieces so flawlessly!

Christopher, being the excellent teacher he is, spent some time learning about print making and asking a bunch of questions on how he could use this in his classroom to educate students in this fine art... he's so good! :) I love the expression on this kid's face... he's thinking "who is this guy?"

The pageant is famous for recreating fine-art masterpieces in real-life size. So they recreate the paintings and they incorporate live people posed to look like the original painting... it's fascinating to watch the process of the backdrops being created, the props placed, the people's faces being painted, the costumes, and the lighting.... it's a tedious, but spectacular display of art! Here's some shots of the makeup design on mannequins....

And then recreated every time the pageant goes on stage... but on a real person... it's looks unnecessarily unreal right now, but just wait to see what it looks like in the painting... So COOL!

Here's some shots of the full pieces

It was so fun to meet and shoot with so many people from the press and it was so inspiring seeing so many artists using their talents to create the pageant! I hope you have a chance to check it out this summer... it will be an experience you won't want to miss!