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The Pleasanton Art League is gearing up to host its eighth annual Paint Pleasanton event, an open-air art competition scheduled for this weekend.Â
Artists from across the Bay Area will gather in front of the Museum on Main, offering the public a glimpse into their creative process before their artwork is judged on the last day of the event.
“You get to see it come alive,” PAL President Alana Shoars said. “It goes from blank canvas, blank paper, whatever it is, and then all of the sudden in two days they produce this wonderful piece of art.”
PAL is a local nonprofit that has been involved in many different art shows and art-related activities since its inception in the late 1960s.
According to PAL secretary Linda Garbarino, the nonprofit has established itself in the fabric of Pleasanton’s visual and performing arts scene. And while the organization is known for its many events throughout the year, she said eight years ago PAL members said they wanted to add another one.
That’s when Paint Pleasanton was born.
The event is centered around the French expression, en plein air, which loosely translates to in the open air. The plein air art event will feature artists who will be painting outdoors for the public to see their process over the course of two days before they display their final pieces on the final day for a judge to critique and for the greater public to admire.
“They get to stand there and see an artist work,” Shoars said
Given the proximity of Halloween the weekend of the show, the 2025 event will have more of a spooky theme to it but other than that, there are no strict rules.
Starting Saturday (Oct. 25), artists will register — they can also register beforehand — early in the morning for the event before setting up shop outside of the Museum on Main to begin their work. The artists will be able to leave and come back the following day but their canvases will be marked from the first day to ensure artists are working on a completely new piece of art.
At the end of the event, a best of show piece will be awarded as well as several other merits which will all have some monetary value. Richard Lindenberg, an accomplished artist who has won countless plein art shows himself, will be judging the pieces of art Sunday (Oct. 26).
Both Shoars and Garbarino said they are excited to partner once again with the Museum on Main because not only are they supporting another local downtown organization, but they are also, in a sense, helping the overall vitality of downtown Pleasanton by bringing more people from both in and out of the Tri-Valley to the Main Street area.
Shoars said PAL likes to partner with as many organizations, such as the National Charity League, so that more people get involved with these types of events which, in turn, brings more people to downtown Pleasanton. The National Charity League, which partnered with PAL last year, is a nonprofit that encourages community service and volunteering opportunities for mothers and their daughters in grades seven to 12.
The organization helped PAL last year with things like taking photos and other volunteer work.
But apart from helping with the vitality of downtown, both of the PAL representatives said Paint Pleasanton is more so targeted at giving these artists — most of whom might be emerging artists — a spotlight.
“Our role is to show what everyone is doing at all age levels and provide a venue for them,” Garbarino said.
Shoars said the nature of the plein air show will give the public an insider’s look at just how hard it can be to create art, and it allows the public to interact with these artists more directly, which could lead to more pieces being sold and an artists getting more confident in their work.
“The one thing artists want is for their artwork to be seen,” Shoars said.
The event will begin early in the morning Saturday and the judging portion of the competition will begin at 2:30 p.m. the following day outside of the museum.Â
The first day of the competition will also be the first day of the PAL’s 18th annual Fall Members’ Show at the Firehouse Arts Center, which Shoars said means there will be a lot of artists running around downtown Pleasanton that day and a lot of chances for members of the community to immerse themselves in the world of art.
