In its second year, Plein Air at the Arboretum, a Festival of Art and Nature, will be held September 18-21, 2024, at the State Arboretum of Virginia at Blandy Experimental Farm in Boyce, VA.
.jpg "An Interview with Rachel Garcia-Palmer from NOVA Plein Air Artists")
Over four days, 100 plein air artists will paint throughout 700 beautiful acres, culminating in the festival, art show, and wet-paint sale on Saturday, September 21st, which is open to the public.
Plein air in French means “open air”, describing how these artists will work outside, over the four-day event, painting the expansive beauty of the Blandy Experimental Farm.
In this Q&A, we spoke with Rachel Garcia-Palmer, co-founder of NOVA Plein Air Artists, a sponsor of the event, and a festival organizer, to learn more about this year’s festival!
The Plein Air at the Arboretum, a Festival of Art and Nature, is in its second year, how will this year’s event differ from its inaugural one?
We’ve tweaked the schedule and added activities especially created for the artists this year, such as a harvest moon nocturne on Wednesday night, and short informative talks about the arboretum by its staff to inspire creativity. We’ve also added three workshops during the days leading to the event, open to anyone wanting to participate.
We listened to last year’s participants who wanted more time to see demos by the featured artists so we have a demo afternoon; this year, we invited our fabulous judges to join the featured artists on Thursday afternoon to do demos as well. On the logistics end, we realized we needed more space within the tents to display the artwork, so we will have two large tents to exhibit all the art.
This year’s event features 100 plein air artists from around the region and country. Can you share with us some of the artists participating and what festivalgoers can expect to experience?
We’re very excited that among the artists that will be participating are members of other local art groups such as Alexandria Plein Air, Washington Society of Landscape Artists, Creative Brush Studio artists, and Loudoun Sketch Club, but we also have many first-time and repeat festival participants.
Visitors and participating artists will be able to watch, learn from, and be inspired by the eight diverse featured artists and our two judges (listed below) as they do live demos in their chosen mediums. Our judges and featured artists include watercolorists, pastelists, and oil painters.
On Saturday, everyone is invited to participate in the quick draw competition, a fast paced alla prima paint-off. Attendees will also be able to purchase one of a kind original art, vote for two people’s choice awards, participate at the children’s art tables.
The event culminates with an art show and wet-paint sale by the participating artists during the festival on Saturday. Please tell us what you hope this art show and sale will accomplish for this year’s event.
We hope to bring buyers and artists together to encourage them to engage about the art and hopefully end in sales. All proceeds benefit the Arboretum, so the ultimate goal is to make sure there is money raised for its benefit while having a great time doing it.
By having the artists available on Saturday, we are trying to establish Blandy’s plein air festival as a place to come yearly to purchase quality art and to be able to meet the artists that create them. We want to build on the reputation started last year that this is an annual festival worth participating in if you are an artist and attending if you are an art lover.
NOVA Plein Air Artists is a co-sponsor of this event, an organization you co-founded with Marilyn Miyamoto, please briefly tell us more about your group and its history.
We met in 2016 at an art organization meeting and realized that not only did we live very close to each other, but also shared many commonalities. We were both brand new to the idea of plein air painting so we decided to give it a try. There were not very many local Plein air groups at that time, and as we met other artists, an informal group of five or six was formed.
Since then, we have organized NOVA Plein Air Artists into a small closed group of 20+ members that paint and show together, exhibiting in local galleries about four times a year. A couple of years ago, Blandy reached out to us to see if we could help them develop and plan a plein air event, which became Plein Air at the Arboretum.
Looking forward, how do you hope your organization and this event will change and evolve in the next few years?
We hope that Blandy and its foundation will continue to push forward with this event. Location-wise, its views lend itself to be painted and it is delightful to Introduce it to those who were not aware of its existence.
We think we are only scratching the surface at this point, with so many more possible interactions where the science and research at Blandy, the involvement of the greater community, and the art aspects could intersect.
NPAA hopes that this beginning will just continue to grow and prosper on a yearly basis. NPAA does not profit from the event in any way; we put in months of planning and several hours of member volunteer work behind the scenes because we want to create a memorable art event.
As far as our own organization, we want to continue showcasing our artists’ work and we are eager to participate in more plein air events across Virginia and the surrounding metro area.
2024 JUDGES:
- Barbara Harris, Suffolk, VA, Quick Draw Judge, Oil
- Catherine Hillis, Oak Grove, VA, Main Event Judge, Watercolor
FEATURED ARTISTS:
- Marci Green, Ashburn, VA, Oil
- Alison Barry, Southern Maryland, Oil
- Kim Hall, Richmond, VA, Oil
- Tomas Ehrenberger, Richmond, VA, Oil
- Tracy Burk, Oak Hill, VA, Oil
- Laura Hopkins, Middleburg VA, Oil
- Lynn Mehta, Lake of the Woods, VA, Oil
- Lori Goll, Leesburg, VA, Pastels
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