Publisher Eric Rhoads and Editor Steve Doherty presented $15,000 to the Grand Prize Winner of the 2nd Annual PleinAir Salon Competition last Thursday for the painting "Alterations."

Three final judges of the PleinAir Salon competition are about to decide who will receive $20,000 in cash and art supplies, and feature stories in PleinAir Today. The announcement will be made in just a few days, during the Plein Air Convention & Expo in Monterey!

Kim Casebeer won First Prize in the January/February bimonthly PleinAir Salon competition with an oil painting based on a location near her Topeka home. "It's important to have a special place I can get to in five or 10 minutes when I need inspiration for a new painting," she says. Find out more about the painting that is becoming Casebeer's signature image.

“One key aspect of my approach to plein air painting came out of my 13 summers as a smokejumper,” says Californian Davis Perkins, who came to our attention after he won an award in the PleinAir Salon competition. Find out what he means in this article, and during his presentation at the Plein Air Convention & Expo (www.pleinairconvention.com).

One of the landscape paintings that stands out among the semi-finalists selected by Michael Zakian in the September/October PleinAir Salon competition (www.pleinairsalon.com) is “After a Storm,” by Philadelphia artist Patrick Connors. We wanted to find out more about how Connors created the piece he calls a “breakthrough painting.”

Jim McVicker didn’t go to art school and hasn’t participated in a workshop, yet his still life painting that just won the First Place award in the September/October PleinAir Salon competition was sold through one of the most prestigious galleries in the country. Find out how he succeeded.

If you entered the September/October PleinAir magazine Salon competition (www.pleinairsalon.com), you'll have the good fortune of having your artwork reviewed by Michael Zakian, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University. Read about this museum director who organizes exhibitions of plein air paintings.

DEADLINE APPROACHING FOR PLEINAIR SALON COMPETITION. Only a few days remain to enter the September/October portion of the PleinAir magazine Salon competition that will result in prizes being awarded by the judge, Michael Zakian, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University. After the deadline of October 31, 2012, three award winners and nine semi-finalist paintings will be selected. Those semi-final works become eligible for the $20,000 in cash prizes to be during the Plein Air Convention & Expo, to be held in Monterey, California, April 10-14, 2013. To enter this exciting and rewarding contest, visit www.pleinairsalon.com

 

On the trip to Italy during which Todd A. Williams created the painting that just won the First Prize in the PleinAir Magazine Salon competition, he applied thick strokes of oil colors to panels he prepared by swirling and dabbing acrylic gesso. “Textures give my paintings more vitality, energy, and individuality,” he explains.

New Jersey's D. Eleinne Basa was certainly glad she'd entered the PleinAir Salon Competition when she received the top prize of $15,000 cash and saw her painting reproduced on the cover of the July 2012 issue of the magazine. Now you have a chance to receive international recognition and valuable prizes by entering through the new contest website at www.pleinairsalon.com.