There’s something about the light in Southern California that has long attracted artists. Add to that the romantic aspects of the South Channel Islands in their splendid isolation and Santa Catalina’s colorful history, peopled as it has been with the Wrigley wealth, the stunning casino with its fabled ballroom, and the island’s long association with movie stars, writers, artists and artisans. It’s hardly surprising that Catalina has drawn plein-air painters through the years to work alone or to take part in festivals that culminated in wet-paint sales in the stunning Avalon Ballroom.
Maribeth Phillips, assistant director of the 2008 Plein-Air Festival, was anything but grateful for that long tradition as she sat at a computer in a borrowed office in the middle of Avalon on that Saturday m
