Chalk art festival in Blaine this Saturday

By Oliver Lazenby

If the sunny forecast holds, Blaine residents and local artists will put chalk to pavement on Saturday, July 23 at Chalk It Up! Blaine, a community chalk art event.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at H Street and Peace Portal Drive. It was originally scheduled for July 9, but the city pushed it back because of rain in the forecast.

Blaine artist Brian Majors will lead participants in the creation of a “chalk by numbers” wall mural. Children and adults can participate in the free event and the city will provide all supplies.

Majors has been the chalk muralist for the Bellevue Art Museum for more than 10 years and has created chalk murals for the Seattle Library, the Tacoma Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum.

Aside from the wall mural, amateur and professional artists will be working on sidewalk art based on the event’s theme, “By the Sea.”

The event is the first of several this summer funded by a Blaine Tourism Advisory Committee grant. The grant also funds the city’s “Splash Days,” an on-street water park play day that’s happening August 5 and 12, and a public works “Roadeo” later in the year that features public works equipment in use.