Professional and amateur artists took a wild leap Saturday at the first LaGrange Chalk Art Festival. The festival was held in front of Wild Leap Brew Co. and was co-hosted by the Downtown LaGrange Development Authority.

“We’ve never had a chalk art festival before, so we’re so excited about showing that to the community,” said Barbie Watts, DLDA director of promotions and marketing. “We’re always looking for fun things to do to bring people downtown and thought this would be a great thing for our community to enjoy.”

The festival also included games for kids, vendors and food trucks.

The festival featured six professional artists from the Georgia Chalk Artists Guild and three amateurs from Troup County. 

This year’s theme for the artists was ‘take a wild leap,’ and all of the artists interpreted that differently. Professional Zach Herndon drew a buffalo in an astronaut suit.

“It’s like that [saying] one giant leap for mankind, but really buffaloes,” Herndon said.

Hogansville artist and amateur Lata Fields made a portrait of CeeLo Green from the Gnarles Barkley song “Crazy.”

“I’ve never done chalk before, and this is a great challenge for me to do it in public, do it in four hours and do a portrait,” Fields said. “That was a challenge for me, and I’m so glad they made this opportunity available that I could come and do this. The theme is ‘take a wild leap’ and nobody’s wilder than CeeLo.”

Professional Heather Cap drew Amelia Earhart. She said this was her first time in LaGrange.

“It’s a really nice little town, and I love that,” Cap said. “I’ve been wanting to come and visit Wild Leap for a while, so I’m super excited to be getting to do something I really enjoy doing plus being at Wild Leap.”

Wild Leap Event Manager Anna Watts said since there are a lot of beer and chalk festivals in the area in the fall, having one in November would not conflict with any others. Anna said they used the event to raise funds for local arts programs.

“There’s an optional donation at the door, and 100 percent of those go to buy art supplies for the Troup County School Systems,” Anna said.

With clear skies on Saturday, Cap said the weather was perfect for the festival.

“So far, this is awesome. I cannot complain about the weather,” Cap said. “We’re really excited that we got such a beautiful day.”