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Artists in this year’s Paint Pleasanton event got the full en plein air experience that the Bay Area has to offer, but the weather couldn’t put a damper on the outdoor competition last month.
Painters put their passion into practice, rain or shine, on Sept. 17 and 18 for the Pleasanton Art League event that sees some of the Bay Area’s best capture downtown and other parts of Pleasanton through their unique artistic eye.
“In spite of weather predictions very unfavorable for outdoor painters, the Pleasanton Art League had our best turnout ever for this event. The support and cooperation from the Museum on Main, who opened their doors to the public, was greeted enthusiastically by everyone. Many had not seen inside the museum before,” event chair Lorraine Wells said.
“The true icing on the cake was that despite everything, artists, many of whom are new to Tri-Valley, from all over the Bay Area including San Francisco, young and old, came out in support of this event,” added PAL president Meghana Mitragotri.
“Painting outdoors is not easy, especially with the light constantly moving throughout the day,” she said. “Knowing that it would rain on Sunday, it was wonderful to see zestful artists taking advantage of the beautiful Saturday, painting pretty scenes all day long and sharing progress and vlogs over social media. Some even traveled from one location to the other and completed up to three paintings in one day.”
San Francisco artist Nathaniel Bice was one of the first-time participants in this year’s Paint Pleasanton event.
“Though I enjoy painting in San Francisco, where I live, I have found a lot of inspiration in getting out of the city and finding new places to paint,” Bice said. “Paint Pleasanton was my first plein air event, though I already know I paint well under pressure thanks to doing live painting at a wedding reception.”
It was great to be part of such a large number of painters all doing our work in the same area at the same time, and an exciting challenge since I decided to push myself to complete three paintings in one day,” Bice added.
Bice painted a landscape at Bernal Community Park as well as the historic Kolln Hardware building and the back of the Firehouse Arts Center in downtown.
Fellow painter Shrey Purohit, who took home an honorable mention prize, described the creative experience painting on the opening Saturday.
“I had a great time painting around Pleasanton and on Main Street. Practicing urban landscape scenes in San Francisco it was a lovely switch to paint the rolling hills around Pleasanton,” Purohit said. “The warm end of summer day from day break to night fall was a great magical day to be painting.”
Other top finishers in the competition included Rolando Barrero winning Best of Show and People’s Choice, Birgit Spaulding and Malavika Oak each earning a Merit Award and Jenna Hobbs and Tuan Karsevar receiving the other honorable mentions.
The 2022 Paint Pleasanton artworks are now on display online via a gallery created by PAL webmaster Marion Huff. People can also purchase any available pieces from the show by contacting the artist directly. Visit www.pal-art.com to learn more.
