Thank you to PleinAir Magazine and Plein Air Convention & Expo for sponsoring this category.

The Art Renewal Center is proud to present the winners and finalists of Plein Air Painting in the 15^th International ARC Salon Competition. Plein Air Painting is about painting on site and creating beautiful scenes fully from life in a natural setting. Its origins started centuries ago as a way to capture color and light, and works created in this method were often used by artists as reference sketches when creating academic studio works. However, this style of painting took on a life of its own, becoming a favorite of the French Impressionists. Their desire to paint light and its changing, ephemeral qualities, married with the creation of transportable paint tubes and the box easel, allowed artists the freedom to paint "en plein air," which is the French expression for "in the open air". Although this category is most often associated to landscape paintings, figurative works that were also painted en plein air, are encouraged in this category. We are proud to add this important historical genera to the ARC Salon.