Annual Plein Air Festival Call to Artists Announced

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Yavapai College’s Prescott Campus Art Gallery announces that submissions are now open for Art in the Pines: The Fifth Annual Prescott Plein Air Festival. Plein Air painters from everywhere are encouraged to bring themselves and their works to the beautiful mountain town of Prescott, Arizona, and paint the pine forests, boulder-lined highland lakes, and historic architecture.

Photo from Yavapai College

Submissions for the Plein Air festival close on April 5.

The Plein Air Festival celebrates Prescott’s gorgeous vistas, compelling history, and architectural beauty, as artists create amazing works on the trailheads and scenic byways of the Prescott area during the festival.

The Festival runs October 9-13, with a reception and sale at YC’s Prescott Campus Gallery in the Jim and Linda Lee Performing Arts Center on October 13 from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Artists will receive 50 percent of sales of paintings completed during the Festival. The Best of Show winner will be awarded $1,000 and a solo exhibition at the Yavapai College Patty McMullen-Mikles Gallery in Clarkdale, AZ.

This year’s Plein Air Festival judges will be artists Bill Cramer and Dawn Sutherland. Cramer, a Prescott resident, has won the 2020 Oil Painters of America Virtual Salon Show Landscape Award of Excellence; the 2020 Prescott Plein Air Best of Show Award; the 2020 Grand Canyon Plein Air Artists Choice Award; and the 2019 Sedona Plein Air Festival Best in Show & Artist’s Choice Awards. Sutherland, a founding member of Arizona Plein Air Painters, has won a variety of awards including the 2023 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art Best in Show; the 2023 Mountain Oyster Annual Contemporary Western Art Show; and the 2022 Tubac Center for the Arts Show Award of Excellence. She teaches fundamentals of landscape painting in the Honors College at Northern Arizona University.

The artist application fee is $35. Plein Air artists may apply via the Yavapai College Prescott Art Gallery’s Submittable Page, at https://yavapaicollegeartgallery.submittable.com/submit.

Fill out the Art in the Pines: The 5th Annual Prescott Plein Air Festival Artist Application completely, including uploading an artist biography, artist photo, and up to three photos of your plein air artwork.

The submissions will be juried, and 20 artists will be accepted for the festival. Artists will be notified of acceptance between April 12 and 15.

Each accepted artist must donate a signature painting to be included in a pre-festival charity auction to benefit scholarships and student art prizes at Yavapai College. The auction will take place from Sept. 15 – Oct. 9th. Donated paintings not sold at auction will become part of Yavapai College’s permanent art collection. Festival staff will arrange pick-up days for donated paintings in Phoenix, Sedona, and Flagstaff.

For further information on the submissions process, or Art in the Pines: The Fifth Annual Prescott Plein Air Festival, please contact Yavapai College Prescott Art Gallery Manager Tim Hull at Timothy.Hull@yc.edu or call (928) 776.2031.

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