The Open Air Invitational at Yavapai College

 

APPLICATIONS CLOSED FOR 2011

 

A Definitive Plein Air Event

  

Definitive Plein Air is outdoor painting from direct-study. It is a creative process that uses no secondary references, such as memory, photographs, reproductions, projections, camera displays, or electronic displays of any kind, including the otherwise 'historically traditional' uses of a camera obscura or camera lucida. All compositional work is begun and completed by the artist at the point-of-view, via eye-to-subject-to-canvas interpretive study. Such works may be created by either alla prima [all at once] method, or through recursive study - multiple visits to the point-of-view over two or more days. 

 

The Perceptual Artists’ Society (PAS) promotes the role of perceptual painting and sculpture, and maintains that direct study and perceptual work will continue to underscore and have direct relevance to contemporary art and its continued development. Membership is open to all artists who work from life, whose visual source of inspiration is based on the act of looking, and who understand the enduring role of perceptual art.

 

To emphasize the role of perceptual painting as integral to the concept of plein-air landscape painting, the PAS will hold its first plein air event: a biennial Open Air Invitational in 2011. The purpose of the Invitational is to demonstrate and exhibit some of the best examples of Definitive Plein Air works. In other words, we want to support and celebrate the artists in our midst who work with earnest determination to see and paint with their own eyes and hands, the outdoor subject in its natural, uncompromised, state of being.

 

The event will give ten professional and ten student painters almost three months to complete five landscapes, worked exclusively from life with no reference to secondary source material, with at least one of the works completed in Yavapai County, Arizona. A private viewing and awards ceremony will be held on October 6, 2011, in the Verde Gallery on the Verde Valley Campus of Yavapai College in Clarkdale, Arizona, and the exhibition will be open to the public from October 7 – November 6, 2011. A first prize of $1500 will be awarded, with more awards to be announced.

 

A variety of artists’ lectures and workshops will be scheduled throughout Sedona and the Verde Valley during the month of October, 2011, beginning with the Friend’s of Verde Arts’ Open Air Invitational, and ending with 7th Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival in Sedona, Arizona, from October 21 – 29. Selected Open Air artists will also have the opportunity to give lectures and/or teach workshops on the Verde Valley, Sedona or Prescott campuses of Yavapai College from August through October.

 

Curated by Perceptual Artists' Society Co-Founders, Clive Pates and Williamson Tapia

Hosted by the Friends of Verde Arts and the Greater Verde Valley Chapter of the Yavapai College Foundation at the Verde Gallery, on Verde Valley Campus of Yavapai College in Clarkdale, Arizona.

 

Open Air Submissions must be postmarked by July 1, 2011.

Successful candidates notified by July 15, 2011.

July 15 – October 6, 2011: Painting times.

Private Viewing and FOVA/GVVC Fundraising Dinner: Thursday, October 6

Public Reception for the Artists: Friday, October 7

October 7 – November 6, 2011: Exhibition open in Verde Gallery, Clarkdale, Arizona.

 

Application Process

 

Please send in the following:

  1. Application Form - Click here for a pdf application: Application Request. (If this link doesn't work for you, then just send an email to virginia.pates@yc.edu for an application.)
  2. Curriculum Vitae – Include information on any education, awards or exhibitions for perceptual work.
  3. Statement, no more than 500 words, of your current practice and philosophy of perceptual (from life) landscape painting.
  4. Five images, on CD in .jpg or .tiff format, of perceptual landscape paintings completed in the past five years.
  5. Image list.  Title, size, medium, retail price, location of work-study, date of creation.
  6. $35 Application Fee made payable to the Friends of Verde Arts. Payment of the application fee also entitles the applicant to one year’s membership in the Perceptual Artists’ Society. An additional $100 exhibition fee will be paid by artists selected for participation in the Open Air Invitational.

 

Please send submissions to:

Virginia Pates
Friends of Verde Arts
Verde Valley Campus of Yavapai College
601 Black Hills Drive
Clarkdale, AZ 86324

(928) 649-5466
Please direct any questions to Virginia Pates at virginia.pates@yc.edu.