That’s what gallery owner Ralph Papa and Shawn Escott are experiencing in Boca Raton, Florida, as their newly opened gallery features works by many of the nation’s top outdoor painters.
How perfect! Streamline Publishing’s home office in Boca Raton, Florida, is currently sharing its building space with Ralph Papa and Shawn Escott’s Papagallery Artists Association, which recently opened its doors to a flood of talent.
The gallery features well over 100 permanent works by the gallery owners as well as consignment works by nationally known painters such as Carl Bretzke, Jason Sacran, Kathleen Denis, Nyle Gordon, Lorrie Turner, Manon Sander, Greg Summers, and Ted Matz. According to Papa, “My main goal with the gallery is to showcase outstanding plein air paintings from local and national artists with forums and presentations to share with artists, art lovers, and the public. I want to share the joy of plein air painting and talk about its incredible growth because of PleinAir magazine and the leadership of Eric Rhoads.”
Papa also co-founded and organizes Plein Air Palm Beach (PAPB). “PAPB’s vision is to work with plein air painters, local art groups, cultural centers, and the public to support and enhance plein air painting education, events, and exhibits,” says the event website. PAPB began with Donna Walsh organizing paint-outs for Palm Beach Watercolor Society. At the same time Ralph Papa organized a plein air group to paint in and around Delray Beach. In the spring of 2013, Papa and Walsh decided to merge the groups. The group decided to use the Palm Beach Plein Air as its name since this most aptly describes the area where they schedule paint-outs.
The site continues, “On April 22, 2014 at a meeting at Delray Center for the Arts, we signed the Incorporation papers to file Plein Air Palm Beach, Inc. as a Not for Profit Corporation of Florida
PAPB schedules paint-outs using meetup.com/plambeachartists. PAPB is for art lovers and artists at all levels who love plein air painting in and around Palm Beach County and the surrounding south Florida vicinity, bringing artists together to paint the land, sea, and cityscapes in beautiful south Florida. We paint and document today’s landscapes that contribute to tomorrow’s history.
“If you have never painted outside, it can be a bit intimidating. But it is an enormous amount of fun when you go with a compatible group, and the Palm Beach Plein Air Artists are so much fun. Once people paint with us, they can’t wait to come back. Mostly we paint Palm Beach, but we plan going to many places in Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties and having a lot of fun.”
To learn more, visit Papagallery or Plein Air Palm Beach.
This article was featured in PleinAir Today, a weekly e-newsletter from PleinAir magazine. To start receiving PleinAir Today for free, click here.
