First Place in the Plein Air Salon

Plein air figurative painting from Gregurić Breg

Gregurić Breg. 100 x 80 cm (40 x 32 inches), oil on linen.

There has been a proliferation of online painting contests recently. In many I find the judging to be erratic and I don’t usually enter twice if I find I strongly disagree with their choices.

On the other hand, I don’t mind losing if I feel the winning works were excellent. The bimonthly contest offered by Plein Air Magazine is the one contest I both regularly enter and regularly lose. Even though I get beaten by other artists most of the time, I think the quality of the work selected for awards is almost always great. Their judging is done with an intelligence and taste that I almost always agree with, even when my submission is not selected.

So I’m happy to announce that, after entering numerous works over the past few years, my painting of Tina in a field in the little hamlet of Gregurić Breg took first place in the recent October/November Plein Air Salon.

The painting was done outside, on location, over the course of a couple of months this year. Below is a photograph of my set-up. It’s in a small village in the hills above Samobor, a small town just outside of Zagreb.

Plein air painting in the mountains above Samobor.

The location at Gregurić Breg.

The grass is of different heights in part because it grew the whole time. It was at the level of Tina’s waist when we started in April, and over her shoulders when we finished in late May. Our landlord was nice enough to leave that little patch of field for us uncut, so I could finish the work.

(Gregurić Breg is currently available for purchase via my London dealer, Constantine Lindsay.)

A second entry, my painting of a snow covered road near Les Plans, Switzerland also took first place in the plein air catagory:

Plein air painting of a road in the snow near Les Plans, Switzerland.

Road in the Snow, Les Plans. 30 x 40 cm, oil on panel.

Below is a photo of the location:

Plein air painting in the snow in Switzerland.

The location in Les Plans.

Update: There is a short piece on my win on the Plein Air website here.

8 comments

  1. Fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing some of the process. One of my favorite things about plein air work is the experience embedded in the process–standing on the frozen road, the growing of the grass, making the place and the moment your own. Beautiful work.

  2. BRAVO!!! Hard believe your work doesn’t win awards all the time. Love the feeling of atmosphere that you’ve wonderfully captured in each of these paintings. Such range and such control of technique. Just terrific!

  3. Congratulations. And thanks for the props. We try very hard to make sure this is judged with integrity and the quality is kept high, which is mostly a result of the high quality of entries, but also great judges.

    Also, really happy to see you plein air painting. Its an important discipline in the entire painting process so one can capture color, form, light, shape and true shadow, which is not possible with photos. Hope to see you at the plein air convention.

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