Land­scape painters will be paint­ing "En Plein Air" to­day, to­mor­row and Sun­day at var­i­ous venues for the 11th an­nu­al Paint Trinidad and To­ba­go event.

Some of the most tal­ent­ed out­door painters will bring their paint box­es and easels to three lo­ca­tions: the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah to­day, Mara­cas Bay and the Pointe-a-Pierre Wild Fowl Trust to­mor­row and Sun­day re­spec­tive­ly. The venues are well known for their scenic beau­ty and his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant build­ings.

Paint Trinidad and To­ba­go is hap­pen­ing with the sup­port of the In­ter­na­tion­al Plein Air Painters (IPAP) and the Art So­ci­ety of Trinidad & To­ba­go, which is cel­e­brat­ing its 70th an­niver­sary. Artists from across T&T are ex­pect­ed to con­verge on the des­ig­nat­ed lo­ca­tions to paint for a few hours each day.

This event is hap­pen­ing si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly in in­ter­na­tion­al lo­ca­tions and the Art So­ci­ety is part of the world­wide group event.

Plein-air artists seek the qual­i­ty of nat­ur­al light and at­mos­phere out­doors. Their art work is in di­rect re­sponse to the beau­ty they find in na­ture. They use a va­ri­ety of me­dia, from oils, through wa­ter­colours and pas­tels.

The pub­lic will be able to join in the fun by watch­ing in­di­vid­ual artists work and mov­ing from painter to painter dur­ing the morn­ing pe­ri­od of the Paint Out.

Event plan­ner Pe­ter Shep­pard who is vice pres­i­dent of the Art So­ci­ety says there is a joy about paint­ings out­doors and this is a chance for peo­ple to see pro­fes­sion­al artists at work, de­vel­op­ing their paint­ings in re­sponse to the beau­ty in na­ture.

Plein-air paint­ing de­vel­oped in France in the mid 19th cen­tu­ry and is be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly pop­u­lar. Last year's event drew artists from all over the globe. Many new plein-air paint­ing groups were formed di­rect­ly from this event.

In­ter­na­tion­al Plein Air Painters, whose mem­bers re­side through­out the world, is the blan­ket or­gan­i­sa­tion for in­di­vid­ual plein-air groups and was cre­at­ed for the sole pur­pose of ad­vanc­ing the ex­e­cu­tion and en­joy­ment of plein-air paint­ing with­out lim­i­ta­tions of bor­ders or re­gions.

IPAP's mem­bers are the qui­et ac­tivists in the on­go­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal strug­gle. They call at­ten­tion to the threat­ened ur­ban scene and the van­ish­ing farm­land for his­to­ry. Mem­bers share in­spi­ra­tion and en­cour­age­ment both on the In­ter­net and at "paint outs". They en­cour­age oth­er artists to get out and do it, to paint with oth­er artists and share ideas.

Paint­ings cre­at­ed dur­ing this event will be placed on an on­line cat­a­logue and will be avail­able for sale via the Art So­ci­ety's Web site www.art­so­ci­etytt.org

More in­fo

The In­ter­na­tion­al Plein Air Painters (IPAP) hosts the paint out year­ly across the globe. IPAP is cel­e­brat­ing its 12th an­niver­sary this year. Join or sup­port the IPAP or learn more about the group and see some of the many events hap­pen­ing post­ed on the web site www.i-p-a-p.com

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