Sunday, August 22, 2010

North Bennington Plein Air Festival

The North Bennington Plein Air Competition will be held September 8-12 in North Bennington, Vermont. This first-annual event brings together an invited list of on-location painters in a lovely setting.

There will be a quick draw, a wagon ride for artists to scout motifs, an auction, cash prizes, and various social events. Art buyers will be able to acquire some fine works in various media. I’ll be there as a judge, but I’ll be painting as well.

I’ll also be giving two lectures:

Thursday, September 9 at 4:00. Imaginative Realism. Behind-the-scenes view of the creation of Dinotopia and other realistic fantasies. Location: Historic Park McCullough. Geared for both artists and family audiences (bring the kids!). Book signing to follow. 802-442-5441.

Thursday evening, September 9 at 8:00 Plein-Air Pioneers. History and modern practice of outdoor painting. Location: Deane Carriage Barn on the campus of Bennington College. Book signing to follow.


Note: Quick-draw artists should register ASAP. Go to website for details and registration form. 

North Bennington Plein Air Competition

8 comments:

Mary Byrom said...

This is so great that North Bennington is hosting this - what a beautiful area ! I will see you there. Thanks James!

Max West said...

Good luck to you up in Vermont.

You've actually inspired me to do more plein air drawing. It makes sense since my own work takes place in an outdoors setting. I've tried doing sketches of weirdly shaped trees in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan and in the future, I plan to head to Central Park and Alley Pond Park.

Matthew Gauvin said...

This is fantastic news!I grew up in Vermont and then moved back here after college to live and work as a full time freelance illustrator. I'm going to do my best to get out to this event one way or another. i think I would feel extremely out of place competeing int he competition as I rarely do plein air paintings these days. I'm also just trying to scrape together some funds to actually be able to go to the event. I was in New York about a year ago for a show opening I had there and I told a friend from there that you are one of my favorite artists. She tried to get me interested in tracking you down but I would have to chose between that or the show opening so unfortunately I went to the opening ,LOL.

Donna said...

Wish I coulda been there!

Kelly Toon said...

Mr Gurney, I was so sorry to have missed going to Anthrocon to meet you this year. Glad to know you had a great experience. I am currently looking for a clip of a plein aire painter, painting a scene from within a thickly wooded forest. He has a very calm Airedale Terrier with him (large, curly, black and tan dog). Does this ring a bell? Did you post this clip at sometime? Thanks for any insight.

Dave said...

the umbrella-- in any wind is there a problem with that and then Sargent used umbrellas I can't think of a time that he said that he had a problem with wind? Sargent used big umbrellas, really big, but then he had an assistant. Dave

James Gurney said...

Kelly, sorry, I can't place that clip.

Dave, yes, wind is a problem with umbrellas. That one behind me has fallen over so many times that you can see it's in bad shape.

Thanks, everyone for the nice comments, and keep sketching! Maybe I'll see you in North Bennington.

I think they're still signing up Quick Draw artists, though the other slots were by invitation and are filled.

dannsalleh said...

goodluck 4u...