Juried-In Artists

I find plein air is one of the truest, most direct and inspirational ways for an artist to experience, understand and interpret the natural world around us. It gives us artists a chance to witness a moment of beauty and create art while full of spontaneity and life.
Favorite locations to paint: Anything with water.
Last plein air event: Lighthouse, FL

I love that you get to capture a moment of time in both light and subject matter while painting on location. Things change so quickly, you definitely have to keep with your impression of the scene.
Favorite locations to paint: love to paint in old towns, old architecture
Last plein air event: Cape Ann Plein Air, MA bethbathe.com

More information about this artist coming soon.

I am endlessly challenged to paint directly from nature, to capture the look and feel of specific locations, and to maintain a sense of immediacy and momentary beauty.
Favorite locations to paint: Living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I love painting the mountains, farms, vineyards, historic homes, and valleys in the region.
Last plein air event: Bath County (VA) Plein Air Festival 2016

Painting en plein air is a total sensory experience. It is so much more than making a 2-dimensional copy of the view in front of you. It is becoming a part of the scene. Feeling the heat, the cold, the sun, the bugs, hearing the sounds-it all becomes a part of your rendering and a part of your memory.
Favorite locations to paint: Water- I love painting by water. Streams, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, oceans.
Last plein air event: Harford Plein Air, October 2017
KathleenGrayFarthing.com

I love the idea of capturing a fleeting light effect. It is difficult yet rewarding when accomplished.
Favorite locations to paint: I don not have any one favorite location.
Last plein air event: Plein Fun Fest sponsored by Plein Air Palm Beach held in Del Ray Beach Florida

More information on this artist coming soon.

Plein Air painting allows me to leave my studio and get in touch of nature - which is why I love it.
Favorite location to paint: Table Top National Park in Arizona.
Last plein air event: 2017 Finger Lakes Plein Air Competition and Festival
douggillette.com

When I am painting plein air I experience what I can only describe as Flow- the feeling of being in phase with everything around you. This makes me very happy.
Favorite location to paint: My backyard.
Last plein air event: Hudson Valley Plein Air

More information on this artist coming soon

I love the spontaneity that plein air painting allows me and the ability to study color and value directly from nature. I am able to respond to the emotional essence of the location in a more intense way by being immersed in the scene.
Favorite location to paint: I really love all areas to paint... fields, vineyards, barns, flowers, gardens, life. From Southern France to the Adirondacks, I find nature is thrilling and am excited to paint where my easel lands.
Last plein air event: Finger Lakes Plein Air Competition and Festival

Plein Air painting makes me work hard and pushes me. It gets me outside, and makes me work faster, more efficiently and effectively. I meet great people while painting en plein air, too!
Favorite locations to paint: My two favorites things to paint are architecture, both urban and rural, and water of any kind. I also love gardens, both formal and natural.
Last plein air event: Maui Plein Air Painting Invitational Feb 16-25, 2018

Plein Air painting is a challenging way to paint, harder than studio work, but there simply is no better way to truly represent what I see in the landscape.
Favorite location to paint: I enjoy painting scenes which are historic and have multiple points of interest. The old towns and farmlands of the tri-state area offer an abundance of great painting locations!
Last plein air event: Hudson Valley Plein Air

Plein Air painting is exciting to capture fleeting moments of nature on the spot.
Favorite location to paint: The Planter Festival at Lighthouse Artcenter
Last plein air event: The planter festival at Lighthouse Art Center

I love plein air painting because it gives me the opportunity to be not only a painter, but a bit of an explorer as well. While searching out painting locations, I have found many beautiful and interesting areas that I would have otherwise passed by. Also, I believe that many of the inevitable distractions and challenges that go along with outdoor painting (a sudden rain storm, the wind blowing over my easel, bugs, the forgotten perfect paint brush) can actually help the process by forcing me to think differently - or to think less - allowing me to paint more intuitively.
Favorite location to paint: Recently I have been drawn to painting locations such as construction sites and train yards. And if I find a big yellow bulldozer in the woods, I cannot resist setting up my easel! Also, last summer I did several paintings in the outfield of an empty baseball field, which caught my attention in the late afternoon light. It caught me in the sprinkler system that went off automatically while I was out there!
Last plein air event: Last summer, I was lucky enough to be a participating artist in the Long Beach Island Plein Air competition and exhibition in New Jersey.

Last plein air event: Cape Ann Plein Air
For more information about this artist visit: 
chuckmarshallfineart.com


Painting outdoors is like therapy. I consider myself lucky to follow in the footsteps of the great artists before me and paint at the same locations.
Favorite location to paint: With places like the Adirondacks, Hudson Valley, the Finger Lakes and everything in between, New York State is a Painters Playground!
Last plein air event: Adirondack Plein Air
patrickmcphee.com

More information about this artist coming soon.

Painting plein air for me is the ultimate joy of painting. Being outdoors, with the possibility of a direct response to the atmosphere, the light and the subject is worth the mosquito bites, the heat or cold of the moment. It is the expression of being in the moment, breathing in and breathing out.
Favorite location to paint: My favorite place to paint is along the Grand River - Ontario (CA). It has beautiful rolling hills along its shore, with wooded areas, farms, small communities, endless opportunities for painting.
Last plein air event: Brant Colours, Brant County Ontario Canada, Elora, Ontario

I love exploring new territory and being outdoors. I camp, canoe, garden, hunt for rocks and plein air paint. Most of those activities take me to places off the beaten path and allow me to connect with the essence of a location.
Favorite location to paint: My favorite locations are usually natural settings with some body of water in it. I tend to go somewhere quiet and uncrowded where all I can hear is the birds.
Last plein air event: Hudson Valley Plein Air in October 2017

More information about this artist coming soon.

I think plein air painting connects us to nature in an almost primal way. It is part of what makes me who I am.
Favorite location to paint: I love painting at the ocean or any place on the water. I also like marsh scenes because it gives a sense of expanse in heavily wooded Florida.
Last plein air event: New Smyrna Beach Paint Out 2017


There are nuances to be perceived when interacting with the landscape en plein air. The artist makes the decision about what s/he wants to communicate with the viewer and the artistry lies somewhere between fact, feeling, and execution.
Last plein air event: Adirondack Plein Air Festival

Plein air painting is the activity that completes me. I am intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally nourished when I paint outdoors.
Favorite location to paint: New England

I am an observational painter - responding directly to what I am in front of. I love exploring new areas and hunting for a composition that will challenge me.
Favorite locations to paint: My favorite painting location is the next one. I am always looking for new subjects that challenge me to grow as a painter. I love to paint structures, water, nature, figures...I am often more excited about the light and compositional possibilities than the subject itself.
Last plein air event: Brandywine Valley Plein Air, October 2017
julieriker.com

I have a passion to paint and a calling from God to pursue my passion. I see every painting as a journey of new opportunity and growth.
Favorite locations to paint: I like diversity and the challenges of painting outdoors, so my favorite location is usually the most recent location I painted in... especially if it was a successful painting.
Last plein air event: 14th Annual Ohio Plein Air Society Competition
robinrobertsfineart.com

The time constraints of changing light and atmosphere help me to focus on essential information. It is a great remedy for anyone prone to perfectionism. You do not have time to delude yourself into attempting perfection. Being outside is just fun and dealing with the resulting challenges makes it feel a little like a sport.
Favorite locations to paint: Light is my main subject so that lends itself to painting most locations. But I do like any place near water, the Eastern Shore Maryalnd shoreline, boatyards and marinas, fields with interesting trees and architecture.
Last plein air event: Paint the Town, Chestertown MD

I love the total immersion in nature that IS the plein air painting experience!
Favorite locations to paint: The Finger Lakes Region of course! There is a great diversity of subject matter here; villages, farms, waterfalls, and grand vistas... and the atmospheric quality of light is quite special.
Last plein air event: 
2017 Finger Lakes Plein Air Competition & Festival Best In Show Winner
kariganoungruiz.com

I enjoy how the painting process transforms a blank canvas into a dynamic, spatially vast environment, and plein air painting allows me to be immersed in the surroundings I am painting and engenders a direct authenticity. It is fun to be at a location, observe a scene for an extended period, and interpret and see it emerge in paint.
Favorite locations to paint: My favorite locations to paint are views that show distance and have water and dramatic clouds. I enjoy painting in the Hudson Valley where I live.
Last plein air event: Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival

Plein air painting is the ultimate creative endeavor. It requires such a unique skill set. And I am a competitive guy so the I enjoy the challenges involved. Also, I love that sense of discovering the beauty of nature anew that comes with each painting session.
Favorite locations to paint: Ft. Desoto Park, St. Petersburg, Fl

First, its fun. You see and feel so much more when you are outdoors and painting in the present. Inspiration comes easily when your outdoors.
Favorite locations to paint: Grimes Glen, Middlesex. Many locations on Route 21.
Last plein air event: Finger Lakes Plein Air Festival 2017

I love the transformative qualities of light when painting en plein air. It is light that makes us stop and look again at the mundane and appreciate its overlooked beauty. In my work, I strive to capture that moment with the hope of reminding my viewers – and myself – of the magic that is woven into life’s tapestry.
Favorite locations to paint: Any landscape in which I can focus on the atmosphere aspects of a place - water and its reflections, air and the perspective it creates and shadow and the depth it defines.
Last plein air event: 2017 Cape Ann Plein Air

Every painting made outdoors has a story to tell. I love the challenge of painting outdoors, wind and humidity sometimes rain and even snow takes my watercolor paintings to a different level. My paintings comes alive in a way that is impossible to achieve in the studio.
Favorite locations to paint: Old barns and farmland, coastal scenes.
Last plein air event: Harford Plein Air Event, MD, October 2017
lenathynellwatercolor.com

I love being outside.
Favorite locations to paint: Finger Lakes, upstate NY
Last plein air event: Lighthouse plein air

I am passionate about painting plein air because it always changes. I just got back from a trip to Hawaii and I painted the same beach at sunrise everyday and each painting varied so much without even trying to force them to look different.
Favorite locations to paint: Farms with old barns are my favorite, but also beaches, old twisty trees when I find a good one.
Last plein air event: This is my first plein air painting event

Plein Air painting has informed my studio painting to a great degree, there is just so much more information when you are plein air painting, and you pick up the nuance of light and texture in a way that you never would from a photo reference. I also feel that the essence of the day gets into a plein air painting; it becomes a little time capsule.
Favorite locations to paint: I live in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks where there are mountains, lakes, valleys, and farmland to paint.
My favorite location is where the Saranac River winds into the distance--behind it you see Whiteface Mountain and others. There is a big depth of field there and the sunsets are spectacular, as is the lifting fog.
Last plein air event: Adirondack Plein Air Festival, 2017

Getting a direct, unmediated, real-time impression of a compelling subject onto the canvas before the light changes is a challenge like nothing else. When the effort succeeds, it is immensely satisfying. When it fails, I am driven to try harder.
Favorite locations to paint: Finger Lakes, Genesee Valley, Southern Tier/Canisteo, Tioga watershed
Last plein air event: Finger Lakes Plein Air, Canandaigua 2017

I find nature reveals it is beauty to those who slow down and look. Plein air painting allows the artist to see more and translate what they see for others.
Favorite locations to paint: Landscapes, lakes streams. farms, fields and gardens, When at home in Maine, the rugged coast.
Last plein air event: 2017 Long Beach Island NJ

I so enjoy connecting to my surroundings and painting my personal postcard of that scene. Also, I like to interact with visitors observing my interpretation.
Favorite locations to paint: Cities, towns, roadside icons
Last plein air event: 2017 Solomons (Quick Draw), 2017 Greenbank Mills Museum accepted artist (Delaware)

It allows me to doing the two things I love the most, painting and the outdoors.
Favorite locations to paint: All of National Parks such as Yellowstone, Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce and Olympic NP in WA.
Last plein air event: Paint the Peninsula in Port Angeles WA
yonghongzhong.com