Street art vs. outdoor art festival

I had vaguely heard about the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, and I had had it in my head to go.  Then of course, I realized it was the same weekend as I was off to Stratford.  In the end, I managed to slip away from work before 6 pm and ran over to Nathan Phillips Square.  It was kind of interesting, but it's basically a glorified art fair, but with far more booths than one normally sees.  I do wish that I had had another 30 minutes or so, but I probably saw 70% of the artists, though there are many I didn't do justice.

Here are four artists that I found interesting at the exhibition.  I could conceivably purchase a piece of art from one of them, though I really have almost no room left in the house, aside from my daughter's room (and I certainly can't expect her to have the same taste as me!).

Elizabeth Elkin
Callie Gray
Joan McNeil
Susan June Robertson

While Sat. is looking like it will rain at least part of the day (drat), Sunday should be pretty nice if anyone is thinking of dropping by.  It runs 10:30-6:30 both days, though by 6:15, the artists start packing things in (another reason I wish I had managed to get over just a bit earlier).

On the way from City Hall over to UT, I passed this sidewalk art.  There were circles of all sizes filled with hearts.

On looking a bit closer, I realized I had seen the same artist's work on Danforth near Jones.  There he had painted the alphabet, presumably the whole thing, though I only looked at D through L.  I probably ought to go back and find the "O", so that I can put together another EHO for the blog (remember this?).  Right now, I just have EH, which is still pretty cool.

There were also some pretty neat sidewalk paintings on Queen this summer, but I generally didn't have a phone available.  If I see anything particularly noteworthy, I'll go ahead and add it below.