35 Artists Selected For Cape Ann Plein Air Competition

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Cape Ann Plein Air is back this year, IRL (“in real life,”) as the youths like to say.  And this year's programming is filled with events, artists, demonstrations and beautiful art.

It’s been a long break for one of the country’s biggest plein air competitions, and a seasonal hallmark on the Cape Ann calendar that makes the region a draw for art-driven visitors who are fans of watching painters head out and about across Essex, Rockport, Gloucester and Manchester competing in the weeklong event Sunday, Oct. 3 to Oct. 11.  What comes out of the competition?  A slate of incredible freshly painted land and seascapes, depicting everyday life as well as inspiring sights.

“Plein air” painting is an outdoor style of fine art painting where artists get out of the studio and into nature to paint what they see and how they feel, in the moment.  Cape Ann’s natural light is famous in the art world, and it is the main reason American plein air painting is said to have been invented here.  The light is perfect for the area’s natural beauty, rich with painting subjects from fishing, granite quarries and islands to lighthouses and miles of sandy beaches.  

The official kick off always comes in the form of an opening ceremony.  In 2019, it was at the Beauport Hotel in Gloucester.  This year, it’s Monday, Oct. 4 at the Amaral Bailey American Legion in Manchester, and organizers scheduled their first plein air demonstration the very same day with Michele O’Neil painting somewhere in the downtown Manchester area.  Later that day, at the public Legion event, the 35 competing artists from across the US would be formally welcomed to the 2021 Cape Ann Plein Air Painting Competition and Festival.  

Cape Ann Plein Air was started six years ago by a local group that partnered with the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce.  Among those there at the beginning were Mike Storella, a Manchester resident who had a gallery on Central Street (CAPA board president), and current executive director Susan Coviello, a resident of Essex and also this year’s president of the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce.  At the beginning, the group was getting its sea legs.  But the competition has grown every year—even using COVID to expand its programming online—and is today one of the top five plein air competitions in the United States, drawing artists hoping to capture local beauty, not to mention the $20,000 prize money.  And today, the Cape

Ann Plein Air Festival has officially become the regional event that has pulled the tourist season on Cape Ann beyond Labor Day, and well into October.

This year, there is lots of programming (18 events in all!) that has been built into the schedule, including regular demonstrations (including noon on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at Sharksmouth in Manchester with artist Charles Shurcliff); a dine and live paint evening on Oct. 7 with participating restaurants in Rockport; and, of course, the anticipated “Quickdraw” competition Monday, Oct. 11 at Harbor Loop in Gloucester.