Sun shines on Geneva Arts Fair

Forget still lifes of bowls of fruit.

Painter Barbara Sistak Baur prefers a fruit tart as her subject.

And cupcakes, and chocolate cakes.

The Island Lake artist calls her acrylic paintings a "gallery of delectable delights." She was selling them at the Geneva Arts Fair Saturday.

"I enjoy going to bakeries," she said, and she admires cooks and bakers. "I feed off their creativity."

Particularly stunning was a large piece, "Grand Fruit Tart," where she mixed her acrylics with gel to create a three-dimensional work where the berries seemed to burst off the canvas.

"Everybody comes in here smiling," she said. And says it makes them hungry.

Baur, who owns Art in Good Taste, was one of 150 artists displaying wares at the two-day event on South Third Street, from South to Campbell.

Saturday-morning rains stopped about a half-hour before the festival opened. (And all the art is in small tents that can be zippered closed.) It was sunny and muggy by lunchtime, when an enterprising optical boutique manager combined art and commerce.

Jasmine Martinez of West Dundee, manager of the Spex store on south Third, and an employee walked through the festival handing out paper fans bearing the image of, and information about, the giant "eyeball" sculpture on display this summer in downtown Chicago. Spex is one of the sponsors of the exhibition, which opened July 7 at Millennium Park.

"It is so hot, and we had tons of these (left over)," she said.

The festival continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. It is sponsored by the Geneva Chamber of Commerce.