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Betty J. Billups: Melancholy, oil, 28x22
"It has to do
with putting your soul on show."
— Denise Burns, Founder, Plein-Air Painters of America
Ask Denise Burns why she founded the
Plein-Air Painters of America, and she characteristically offers
a tidbit of humor: We were eating bugs, too, she says,
pointing out that in the mid-1980s New Mexico's on-location
painters were getting attention in the press, but those in California
were only beginning to see their names in print.
It was an era when early California impressionism was just beginning
to be documented by scholars. In 1982 Ruth Westphal published
the resource book Plein-Air Painters of California The Southland,
followed four years later by The Northland.
Major collections were being built, and prices for historic
paintings were rising. Burns, who was president of the Catalina
Art Association at the time, felt the moment had arrived to
educate collectors about contemporary artists pursuing the art
of painting from life. With the encouragement of her friend
and Catalina neighbor, art collector Roy Rose (grand nephew
of California impressionist Guy Rose) Burns handpicked 20 artists
to participate in the First Annual Plein-Air Painters Festival,
October 30-November 2, 1986. The idea was to come to Catalina
Island, as did so many early California impressionists, paint
outdoors for a week, then sell the paintings in a Saturday evening
exhibition.
That format continued with minor variations through 2003, when
the last PAPA-sanctioned exhibition and sale took place on Catalina
Island. Today, PAPA exhibitions and sales are held from coast
to coast. In them Signature Members and Guest Artists create
brilliant jewels in oils and watercolors, documenting a place
and time and calling attention to landmarks large and small.
For collectors, these paintings reinforce community pride in
the beauty of landscapes, seascapes or ‘urbanscapes’
that may have been taken for granted.
Because it is quality not quantity that motivates The Plein-Air
Painters of America, Signature Membership remains small. Over
the past two decades, however, many of the finest painters have
been invited to show as Guest Artists at various PAPA venues.
The quality of art produced by both Signature Members and Guest
Artists was documented in the book, Enchanted Isle—A
History of Plein Air Painting in Santa Catalina Island
(2003, Society for the Advancement of Plein Air Painting, Avalon,
CA).
Educating collectors about on-location painting is only one
of the ways in which PAPA members share their expertise. In
1997, PAPA held its first annual workshop. Co-sponsored by the
Scottsdale Artists’ School, these intensive outdoor painting
opportunities last from three to five days and draw participants
from across the country. By painting with a variety of PAPA
Signature Members, participants are exposed to both fundamentals,
as well as diverse approaches. As one enthusiastic participant
noted, "I consider the PAPA workshop my masters in painting!"
From very humble beginnings on Catalina Island, PAPA has parlayed
success upon success, producing shows and workshops of such
high caliber that the group is regularly identified as the icon
of the genre. PAPA is, as Southwest Art magazine described
it, "the granddaddy of them all," spawning the plein-air
phenomenon presently sweeping this nation.
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