From the Desert Plein Air Association event at Shields Date Garden, December 2022
From the Desert Plein Air Association event at Shields Date Garden, December 2022

Take advantage of these art and plein air painting events and opportunities from our 2023 Ultimate Guide to Painting Events and Organizations.

(We want to include your plein air painting events! Don’t see your group listed here? Contact our marketing team to learn how to advertise your plein air painting events and more with Plein Air Today.)

California

“Paint the Desert – Plein Air” Palm Springs – La Quinta
Dates: February 1-6, 2023
Opening Reception: February 4, 2023
Sponsoring Organization: Desert Plein Air Association
Venue: Artist Center at the Galen, in Palm Desert
Format: Open
Contact: Diane Moore
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 760.485.6798
Website: www.desertpleinair.org
Plein air festival. Artists paint from Palm Springs-La Quinta for 3 days. Reception with Award Ceremony. Juror: Jean Stern. Open to all artists.

Looking Ahead

Colorado

Plein Air Convention & Expo
Dates: May 21-25, 2023
Sponsoring Organization: PleinAir Magazine
City: Westminster (Denver area)
Website: pleinairconvention.com
Every year, the Plein Air Convention brings the foremost artists in their fields to share their best practices and techniques with you for five days of high-impact art instruction. It’s your chance to be part of a family of artists and to learn from the very top painters in the world. Each action-packed day includes indoor demonstrations on four stages by the world’s leading artists, including specialty sessions for oil, watercolor, pastel, and acrylic. A chance to sample the techniques of a faculty of over 80 painters.

New York

Paint Adirondacks
Dates: June 10-17, 2023
Sponsoring Organization: PleinAir Magazine
Venue: Paul Smiths College, in Paul Smiths
Contact: PleinAir Magazine, 561.655.8778 or 800.610.5771
Website: paintadirondacks.com
PleinAir Magazine’s Eric Rhoads started the Publisher’s Invitational so his friends could join him in the Adirondacks to paint, but an invitation is no longer required. This event is a chance for busy painters who need a break, an opportunity to slow down, reconnect with friends, and paint beautiful places where the masters before us have painted. We make it effortless. You roll out of your dorm bed for breakfast, pack your sack lunch for your day of painting, and show up for dinner. Our days are filled with painting the Adirondack Mountains of Northern New York State and the surrounding area.

Fall Color Week 
Dates: September 29-October 5, 2023
Sponsoring Organization: PleinAir Magazine
Venue: Saranac Village City, in Saranac Lake
Contact: PleinAir Magazine, 561.655.8778 or 800.610.5771
Website: fallcolorweek.com
PleinAir Magazine’s Eric Rhoads lives in a place where fall color isn’t great, so he created the Fall Color Week retreat, held in various locations during peak color season annually. It’s a week of painting with old friends and new ones. We have our meals together, and we stay on the same property … all for one price. Join Eric this fall in Saranac Lake in New York during peak fall color season. Come enjoy the beautiful fall scenery with no competition, just painting alongside your friends. No meals to cook, no one to care for, just roll out of bed, get fed, and paint all day. It’s glorious.

Tennessee

Welcome to Plein Air in the Smokies
Dates: September 24-October 1, 2023
Sponsoring Organization: Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Entry Deadline: February 20, 2023
Venue: Clayton Center for the Arts City: Kodak Format:
Combination Contact: Lauren Gass
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 865.257.4776
Website: www.pleinairinthesmokies.org
Welcome to Plein Air in the Smokies, the second annual art event inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In September 2023, 20 nationally acclaimed “plein air” artists will gather in the most visited national park to capture the beauty and magic of the Smokies.

Online Painting Events:

Coming Soon: Plein Air Live
Dates: March 9-11, 2023 (Beginner’s Day March 8)
Sponsoring Organization: Streamline Publishing
Phone: 561.655.8778 or 800.610.5771
Website: pleinairlive.com
A Rare Opportunity to See the World’s Top Artists Teaching Plein Air Painting in One Place


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