Starting today, a record number of plein air painters will assemble at the Monterey, California, Conference Center in the largest gathering of plein air painters in history. The group, which is coming from all parts of North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East, the Orient, and Australia/New Zealand, is coming together for the PleinAir magazine Plein Air Convention & Expo, which officially opens at 4 p.m. today.

Publisher Eric Rhoads wanted to find out if the claims of a watch for painters can hold up. Can a watch tell you how much sunlight you have left or when the tides will be coming in? Read his review here.

If you're a painter who does a lot of events and would like a chance to paint for play, no competition and no exhibitions the PleinAir magazine Publisher's Invitational starts this Tuesday in Upstate New York in the Adirondack Mountains. There is still room for you.

Dinner with friends one night lead Eric Rhoads, publisher of PleinAir magazine to create an event for painters which had no show, no competition, no sale — but just painters spending time with other painters. The concept was created after several of Rhoads' friends suggested that they never got to paint with friends at events because they all wanted different spots and different paintings and fierce competition prevented quality time together.

Tax day, it seems, is just around the corner. While some are waiting till the last minute to file their taxes others have decided to get it done, file early and spend tax day at the 1st Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo. Here are three practical business reasons to attend on tax day.

Follow the steps of the Hudson River Painters this summer, on your way to the fabulous "Publisher's Invitational" Paint the Adirondacks painting event that PleinAir^TM Magazine editor Steve Doherty and publisher Eric Rhoads are curating. The week-long painting trip, from June 21-26, promises more painting than you could ever dream of, glasses of wine with old and new friends and a chance to return to nature and paint the spots that the greats once painted.

Prizes for the 1st annual Plein Air Salon art competition have been announced! The yearly and bi-monthly winners could win up to $15,000 in cash prizes, a feature in PleinAir^TM Magazine, an Artist profile in our weekly e-letter PleinAir Today, gift certificates or fantastic painting prizes from our generous sponsors!

In an effort to make OutdoorPainter.com and PleinAir Magazine an even BETTER resource for you, the artist and plein air painter, we have just launched a pretty awesome new Community feature. You can create a profile, participate in group conversation threads, add your artists and directory listings, post your events, upload painting photos, personal images, videos and anything else your heart desires! Come join the OutdoorPainter.com Community today!

PleinAir Magazine has announced its first annual Plein Air Salon Competition which is accepting entries starting today. The annual competition will award up to $20,000 in annual cash prizes plus exposure in PleinAir Magazine along with many other prizes and recognition.

The competition will consist of six bi-monthly contests and the winners of each will be entered into the annual competition.  The first bi-monthly contest, will be judged by master artist Curt Walters.