FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  2 January 2009

The Plein-Air Painters of America is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition at The Haggin Museum, Stockton, California, opening 2 October 2009. Titled American Legacy: Our National Parks, the exhibition comprises approximately 100 artworks by 32 PAPA Signature and Emeritus Members and six Guests Artists who set up their easels in national sites across the country. The artists are among the country’s most respected plein-air painters.

Each artist selected a favorite park to document, covering approximately 38 sites from coast to coast, border to border, and from the earliest park designation to one of the most recent. The exhibition is a “field journal” experience that draws viewers into seasonal and daily experiences of color and light rendered in pigment on paper or canvas. In some instances, the field studies were used to create larger, studio paintings.

Additionally, 15 PAPA Signature Members will spend a week in March 2009 in Zion National Park in southern Utah, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. The plein-air paintings created at that time offer a special focus on the spectacular gorges and intimate creeks and glades that characterize this park whose Hebrew name means a place of refuge or sanctuary.

As absorbing as the individual paintings is the organization of the exhibition. The artworks appear in the catalogue and on the walls by date and the presidential administration that established the location. This nearly decade-by-decade documentation affirms the continuing desire of the American people to protect unique geographic and geological wonders as national parks, preserves, recreation areas, monuments, seashores, parkways, rivers, and historical sites.

The Plein-Air Painters of America was established as a by-invitation painting group in 1986 and comprises some of the country’s most renowned artists. The following list identifies the National Park Service sites and PAPA members and guests who are represented in the exhibition, which is organized by The Haggin Museum, Stockton, California, where it debuts in October 2009.

CONTACT
Susan Hallsten McGarry
505.982.6379, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it