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The Vision
Capturing and Preserving Florida’s Natural Resources Through the Plein Air Tradition
Welcome to Forgotten Coast en Plein Air, America’s Great Paint-out! The 10-day festival is among the world’s most prestigious of plein air events. Now in the 12th year, The event documents the landscape and culture of the last vestige of authentic “Old Florida.”
The Forgotten Coast on Canvas
The festival emphasizes artistic excellence and the production of investment-quality paintings. But there’s another mission: To capture the soul of the region. “With plein air events popping up all over the country, we realize the importance of focusing on quality and relevance,” says Event Chair Joe Taylor. To do this, the festival focuses as much on the artists and art as it does on depicting the landscape, cultural, architecture, and life of this special place on Florida’s coast.
Paintings That Tell Stories
Take a drive along The Forgotten Coast and you’ll see a wild mixture of shorelines and forests, people and places, and small businesses and historic homes. “We’ve developed a three-year painting program that captures not only why plein air painting is important, but how the process and the paintings contribute to a region’s resilience,” says Taylor. In short, the plein air
paintings capture all the aspects of life, past and present, that makes this region so extraordinary.
Last year, in 2016, the event focused on habitat preservation and environmental stewardship,examing land use, conservation, and man- agement as well as aquaculture challenges such as oyster reef restoration. This year there will be an emphasis on capturing the region’s rich local culture and heritage as well as the people, places, and stories that inform the plein air paintings. In 2018, the event will celebrate the built environment, the human-made spaces where people live and work. This program and its paintings will showcase architecture, streets- capes, working waterfronts, and historic sites.
The Artists, the Events, and You
This invitation-only event features 20 internationally acclaimed artists who come from around the globe. Six Florida artists will serve as Plein Air Am- bassadors whose work will be featured in the exhibit. The ambassadors will host one on one painting experiences at the plein air painting stations set up throughout the region during the event.
Visitors are urged to interact with the painters; they love the attention! Attend the quick-draw event, the nocturne paints, lectures, lunches, receptions, col- lection exhibits, and Collector’s Gala to see all of the plein air paintings, and learn more about the artists, their painting styles and mediums.
But most of all, become a collector. There’s no better way to support the artists and the region than to buy paintings. While the artwork represents a mix of subject matter and styles, all paintings offer a true sense of place and your own meaningful slice of the beautiful Forgotten Coast.
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