9128 SE Bridge Rd
Hobe Sound, FL 33455
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HOBE SOUND — Nadia Utto wants to paint the town.
She envisions murals on dozens of exterior walls around this beachside hamlet, beginning with the 600-square-foot beach scene Utto and nine other artists were painting Saturday on the eastern wall of Island Beverage, 9128-A Bridge Road, in conjunction with the eighth annual Hobe Sound Festival of the Arts, which continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The juried festival features the work of 150 artists whose works range from $15 posters to $50,000 sculptures. In addition, a green market has 25 booths offering plants and herbs. The festival raises about $20,000 for the Hobe Sound Chamber of Commerce and the Women’s Club, which use the money for scholarships and community events.
A steady stream of festivalgoers strolled past and new Hobe Sound resident McGruder played his acoustic guitar and sang folk-rock while artists Carol Boye, James Hook and Tony Haigh — members of the Barn Artists group — added their touches to the wall. Hook was painting a boardwalk leading to the water, while Boye painted a section of hibiscus and Haigh added an unusually colored pelican.
Utto and Hook painted the background beach, sea and sunset during the week.
“Our intention for this is to make a signature offering to make Hobe Sound a muraled town,” Utto said, noting it’s not the first mural in Hobe Sound, but the first as part of this project. “I have a few more lined up; I’d like to do one a month.”
The chamber’s executive director, Jennifer Ferrari, said this mural will help persuade others to let their walls be a canvas. “Hopefully, it will encourage other businesses to beautify their property.”
Mahendra Patel, who with his wife, Urmila, own the building that houses Island Beverage and Flash Beach Grille, said he consented to the mural because he wanted to give something back to the community that has supported his businesses since he moved from New Jersey in 1985.
David Cox brought his two young sons from Palm City to tour the arts festival and stopped to watch the mural painting. “I’ve never seen a painting like this,” Tanner Cox, 7, said.
Utto said the mural may be simply a coat of paint, “but it’s so much more than that. There are seeds being planted” to help improve the beauty of the town.