Paintings and sculpture selected for the California Art Club’s (CAC) 101st Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition will be on view from April 1 - 22, 2012 at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. Works by 124 painters and 22 sculptors will be considered for the awards and will be available for sale.

Both Kim Lordier and Ned Mueller were extremely impressed with Mitch Baird’s painting of gondoliers navigating a canal in Venice, Italy and awarded it the First Prize in the November/December competition for the 1st Annual PleinAir Salon. The Arizona artist is a dedicated plein air painter who uses his field sketches in the studio to create stunning landscapes, still lifes, and figurative paintings.

Oregon artist Mitch Baird’s painting “A Guiding Nudge” was selected to receive the First Prize award in the November/December 1st Annual PleinAir Salon Competition by judges Kim Lordier and Ned Mueller. Second prize went to Marc Dalessio for his painting “Barn at Turback”, and Third Prize was given to Aaron Schuerr for his painting titled “River Glow.” The judges offered comments about all three of these paintings.

The only way to have a shot at winning the $20,000 in cash prizes in the November/December section of the 1st Annual PleinAir Salon Competition is to fill out the entry form and upload your paintings TODAY! Don’t miss your chance at winning BIG!

Don’t let the holiday festivities make you to forget about important deadlines that are approaching. The cutoff for entering the November/December bimonthly 1st Annual PleinAir Salon Competition being judged by Kim Lordier and Ned Mueller is December 31, 2011; and the deadlines for entering a number of important 2012 plein air festivals are also getting close. Here are a few dates to put on your calendar for the new year.

One of the artists who will be traveling from outside the United States to participate in the 1st Annual PleinAir Convention & Expo from April 12-15, 2012 is Ulrich Gleiter, a German artist who studied at the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The California Art Club will host a two-day symposium at the Ft. Mason Conference Center in San Francisco, California on January 21-22, 2012 featuring lectures, panel discussions and painting demonstrations. PleinAir magazine publisher B. Eric Rhoads will be among the featured speakers.

Fifteen nationally known artists will be presenting their work during The Wine Country Plein Air Invitational Exhibition from September 17 - October 17, 2011 at The Fairmont Gallery in West Sonoma, California.

Members of the BayWood Artists are creating paintings around the San Francisco Bay for an exhibition that will benefit Save the Bay Foundation during its 50th anniversary. One hundred paintings will be exhibited from October 21, 2011 - November 12, 2011 in the Bay Model Visitors Center in Sausalito, California.

We are excited to announce that a number of internationally known plein air painters have already agreed to be instructors and demonstrators during the 1st Annual PleinAir Convention & Expo taking place April 12-15, 2012 at the Red Rock National Conservation Area and the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. Our special guest will be Richard Ormond, grandnephew of John Singer Sargent and the author of most of the great books on Sargent.