Ste. Genevieve Hosts 15th Annual Plein Air

The public is invited to vote for their favorite painting created during the annual Plein Air painting competition, and the painting with the most votes earns $200 cash for the artist who created it.

Voting begins at the Plein Air awards reception and art show and sale, which will be from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, September 28, at the still-under-renovation Ste. Genevieve Art Center and Art Museum (Old Museum Building) on the Courthouse Square at 310 Merchant Street.

There’s an additional opportunity to cast a ballot from 11 a.m. to noon on Sunday, September 29.

Most of the $3,000 in cash awards and prizes will be announced Saturday night, and the remainder on Sunday before the Plein Air show closes at 2 p.m.

Artists may register for the event between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the Art Center.

Artists from around the region will start arriving in town on Wednesday, September 25, setting up easels along streets and byways in keeping with the community’s 87-year old Art Colony tradition of American scene painting. It was 1932 when a group of enthusiastic artists gathered at the Shaw House to spend the summer painting outdoors — or as the French say, “en plein air.” Ste. Genevieve was chosen then for the same picturesque qualities that attract painters today.

In a nod to the Fourth Friday Art Walk, the Ste. Genevieve Herald is sponsoring a purchase award for a painting completed at twilight somewhere along the Art Walk route. Get a glimpse of the artistic competitiveness between some extremely accomplished painters that evening as you stroll among the galleries on Friday, September 27, beginning at 6 p.m.

Financial assistance for the Plein Air was provided by the Ste. Genevieve County Community Foundation, the Dorothy “Dot” Uding Memorial Fund, the Ste. Genevieve Herald and various local and regional businesses, organizations and individuals.

(Information in a release from the Ste. Genevieve Art Guild.)

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