Artists get a wider view

Fifty noted artists have been chosen to participate in the 10th annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational Oct. 18 to 19, an event hosted by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn., known as LPAPA, and Laguna Art Museum, where the paintings will be displayed.

Terry Reno, event director of LPAPA, said this year’s theme is diversity.

“We’ve invited some of the finest landscape painters from across the country,” she said. “Twenty-one of these are new blood.”

In the past, artists traveled to Laguna as part of the weeklong event to paint only local scenes. This year, they will bring in-hand to the event three random pieces they have painted in the last year.

“This will bring a much larger variety of paintings,” Reno said.

The event will include a preview of the 200-piece collection, a “plein air paint-out” in Heisler Park sponsored by Southwest Art Magazine the morning of Oct. 18, and a Collectors Soiree that night.

“All fifty artists will set up their easels in the park and paint for two hours,” Reno said. “Those paintings will then be added to the collection.”

Reno said guests of the evening soiree will have a chance to mingle with the artists, enjoy food and cocktails, and have the first opportunity to purchase paintings in advance of the general public.

A public art show and sale will follow on Sunday at the museum.

Painter Jim Wodark of Orange, who won entry to the invitational as first place recipient in the LPAPA “Best of Plein Air” exhibition contest in June, said he’s been waiting for this moment for a decade.

“I am so excited to be a part of this show,” Wodark said. “It’s one of the best around for this kind of art, and I think this year will be especially great because there will be paintings from all over.”

Wodark, who paints mainly in Laguna, will showcase local ocean and landscapes he’s completed in recent months.

Laguna artist Mark Kerckhoff agrees the expansive collection of work will make a greater impact.

“In addition to some artists who will come to paint Laguna landscapes the week before, it will be interesting to see more contemplative work from different regions,” he said.

Kerckhoff plans to show oil paintings of the Laguna Coast and Big Sur.

LPAPA, founded in 1996, is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to assist artists with information and opportunities for advancement. Event proceeds benefit LPAPA, the Laguna Art Museum and the artists. For more information about the organization visit www.lpapa.org, or to purchase tickets for the Collectors Soiree, visit www.lagunaartmuseum.org or call (949) 494-8971, ext. 219.