Each spring, some of the best landscape artists in the world along with novice painters and top art vendors, congregate at the Plein Air Convention and Expo.
This amazing convention is the world’s largest plein air event founded by Eric Rhoads, publisher of Plein Air Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine and the helpful blog, OutdoorPainter.com. Eric and his talented team make this a not-to-miss annual experience. Over 80 of the world’s top painters serve as faculty members to nearly 1000 participates ranging from aspiring to professional artists. During the convention everyone enjoys networking and painting together. Attending the event is sure to give artists new techniques and valuable information to elevate anyone’s painting and business skills – plus we share lots of laughs together!
This year we met in beautiful Tucson, Arizona for a week of plein air painting, and intense learning. Again, I had the honor of being on of the faculty and also represented Royal Talens as the Cobra Artist Ambassador! Each day, I spent time in the Royal Talens’ booth demonstrating Cobra’s watermixable, solvent-free oils. I painted on universal primed linen by Multimedia Artboard and used Catalyst brushes by Princeton Artist Brush Company as their Ambassador.
Below is one of my demos. When painting demos, it’s best to paint ‘what you know’ in order for your painting to have the best chance of being a success – so, I painted a winter scene!
The convention was a mind-expanding experience! Once over, there is kind of a let down. We all go home and miss the camaraderie, but we can stay in touch via Facebook and by using the hashtag #PACE16 to find more conversations!
To keep the Plein Air Convention buzz going, fellow artist Mark Fehlman started the Facebook Plein Air Challenge, “Plein Air Convention Challenge- What are 5 things that you got out of the Conference?” In this Challenge we were asked to identify and post 5 takeaways from the conference and challenge 3 friends to do the same.
I don’t normally like these chain-type Facebook posts, but this one was really worthwhile! In fact, I was so impressed, I decided to share some of the takeaways here – I think you will learn a lot! (At the end of each post, be sure and click on ‘See More’ to read the whole post.)
Here are some valuable lessons learned by the pros at the Plein Air Convention:
Professional artist, Bill Davidson shares his takeaways…
Professional artist, Lori Putnam and her takeaways from the convention…
Professional artist, award winning pastelist Kim Lordier’s lessons learned…
Popular art blogger, professional writer, and artist, Lori Woodward gives her top tips…
…and here are my lessons I learned from the Plein Air Convention! I could have written lots more!!
I hope you enjoyed reading this #PACE16 conversation!
