2021 National Cherry Blossom Festival Official Artist – Patrick Guyton

Guyton had included cherry blossoms in many of his pieces since 2008, becoming one of the iconic and recognizable subjects of his artworks over the years. It would only be fitting that 13 years later, Guyton would be offered an invitation to be the 2021 official Cherry Blossom Festival artist – an offer that he was more than happy to accept. Before taking on the daunting task of creating the official artwork for the festival, a piece that would be displayed across all the Cherry Blossom Festival platforms, as well as Washington D.C., Guyton dove deep into his research of past artists of the festival. Within his research, he discovered some of the big-name artists who were announced as the official artists of past festivals, including fellow Park West Gallery artist Peter Max. Guyton knew one thing for sure: he wanted his work to evoke a mysterious, magical, colorful, timeless, and technical feel within his piece. He wanted to display his original, gold-leafing technique while creating a piece that was “out of the box”, which he applied quite literally. Guyton drafted his picturesque scene in his unique style of Gilded Modernism®, which perfectly encapsulated the essence of Washington’s iconic cherry blossoms. The official artwork depicts the banks of the Potomac River, which is lined with Japanese cherry blossoms in their white bloom stage, with the Washington and Jefferson monuments residing in the background. In the foreground, Guyton envisioned a vortex of cherry blossoms being blown up by the wind with two hummingbirds chasing the petals looking for sips of nectar. Along with official artwork, the festival would be creating posters of the piece he created to be displayed around the city and sold as merchandise, so Guyton began to literally “think outside the box” for this poster design. In his final poster design, Guyton added magenta borders with outlined lavender blossom icons. The addition of the magenta borders led to the addition of burnt umber blocks at the top and bottom of the poster to offer a darker contrasting color for the text to sit on. The magenta side bars looked as if they filled the entire background, while the burnt umber blocks gave the illusion of a center runner, with the artwork floating in the center. To create an eye-catching effect for the poster, Guyton introduced a three-dimensional effect of the vortex of blossoms appearing to fly up off the center and overlapping the blocks, giving the poster the appearance of having three different levels. If you are interested in this exclusive and beautiful official Cherry Blossom Festival poster, it is still for sale on the National Cherry Blossom Festival website, which can be located at this link: https://www.ncbfstore.org/search.php?search_query=patrick%20guyton&section=product

As for the materials, Guyton ended up going with a special warm-toned Pure Silver Leafing (.999), imported from Austria, which is a buttery-looking silver with exquisite veining. He dove into the complete gilding of the substrate in this beautiful pure silver. After it was set, Guyton rendered out and painted the background scene with a combination of oils and acrylic paints. When finished, he gilded on a second layer of pure silver in the shape of a vortex of blossoms winding up. The individual blossom petals were then burnished, with a ancent effect, which set them apart visually from the background image, emphasizing the vortex’s movement. Then, a third layer of silver was applied on top of the previous layer to serve as a base for the illustration of the hummingbirds. Not only was Guyton pleased with his work, but the spectators and fans of the Cherry Blossom Festival were just as pleased to have Patrick Guyton as their official artist of the festival. If you would like to see Guyton’s exclusive festival artwork in person, it now resides on the gallery walls of the National Cherry Blossom Festival HQ in Washington, D.C.

After wrapping up the creation of the festival art, Guyton was asked by the festival coordinators to work up a similar style of art, but this time on a five-foot-tall sculpture of a single cherry blossom. Guyton decided to take the literal approach and completely cover the resin and fiberglass sculpted petal in the same silver leafing as the painting. He worked with five different transparent glaze tones on top of the silver: magenta, red, burgundy, pink, and lavender. The next step was gilding on another layer of leafing, to which Guyton added pure gold leaf on top of the center flower stamen. Finishing it up with the same two hummingbirds as in the poster, with the addition of an extra hummingbird seated on the gold stamen, Guyton completed his first and only sculpture to date. His finishing touch of the seated hummingbird was a representation of his completed work due to the rare occurrence of a hummingbird being at rest. Guyton titled the sculpture “The Gift”, a symbolic name that represents how Washington, D.C.’s own cherry blossoms were a gift from Japan in 1912. Just as the Mayor of Tokyo gave Washington D.C. its iconic cherry blossoms, Patrick Guyton gave the festival a one-of-a-kind sculpture to be displayed in the city. Installed as an open-air piece, this sculpture was displayed for all to see for the duration of the festival, which was then later auctioned to the highest bidder in an auction at the conclusion of the celebration. The sculpture is now residing in a private collection. To see and read more about “The Gift”, check out this link: https://nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/artwork/the-gift/

Being the official artist of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. was one of the highlights and honors of Guyton’s career. He expresses his gratitude to the many people who have commented on and have said wonderful remarks about this 2021 official festival art and sculpture, and it means so much to know that his vision was a huge success!