Thunderbird Artists is heading west again! West of Phoenix that is, to the City of Surprise!  In 2005, Thunderbird Artists produced an extraordinary festival, set within 180 acres, on the Mark Coronado Park.  Back by popular demand, the City of Surprise and Thunderbird Artists are once again partnering for another spectacular Surprise Fine Art Festival. Surprise warrants a weekend stay for the whole family. Surprise Stadium is home for the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals ‘Spring Training’ and the Surprise Recreation Campus has a fishing lake, along with a 25 court Tennis & Racquet Complex.

Featuring Sue Elliot

Trees have their own magic, all trees; but Sue Elliot’s inks, pens, and reclaimed wood brings out their innermost sense of whimsy and fantasy. Her bold colors, textured surfaces, and comical river-rock birds perched on delicate branches spring from a mind and heart that are always at play—together. A Maine native who married a licensed forester and lived in the woods, Sue wanted to transform her degree in natural resource management into a full-time fine art career, so she turned to the familiar. “I read that you should paint what you know,” she says. “I know trees. I love trees. Trees have always been my focal point.”

Now they’re her muse. Her original black-and-white inks on paper had a limited market, so she added color and salvage wood, and never looked back. An avid, even obsessive hiker, she collected material along the trails.  “I started attaching broken glass and rusted metal, along with the river rocks, to the wood panels,” she says. “The client feedback was incredible.” Her colors evolved from Atlantic blues and greens to Arizona’s panoramic pallet; she cites “the sky, the desert, and the fact there’s always something in bloom here” as inspiration. And because her desert-based collectors are often tree-state transplants who miss the cool leafy canopies of home, her work “has just exploded out here.”

Her environmental science background has her leaving messages of hope, of guidance, and of whimsy threaded across her work, urging visitors to care for the planet and for themselves. For her part, she is “happiest being barefoot…on top of a mountain,” and expects her children to give her piggy-back rides to the summit when she’s too old to climb—just like she did for them.

The festival will also encompass live musical entertainment and tasty food. The West side of the event is lined with a variety of food trucks, ensuring everyone finds something to tempt the palette. After lunch, complete your meal by satisfying your sweet tooth and snacking on kettle corn, cookies, caramels, ice cream and more while strolling throughout this fine art event.

Dates: January 13 - 15, 2023

Time: 10:00 a.m - 5:00 p.m.

Location:

Mark Coronado Park,
15850 North Bullard Avenue,
Surprise, AZ 85374.

Admission: $3.00 (cash only); Wine Tasting $15

Click here for more information.