2024 Harford Plein Air Festival
July 1 - October 31
APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED MARCH 15 to MAY 15.
Late applications accepted May 16 to 18 with payment of late fee.
Celebrating the 10th Anniversary, the Harford Plein Air Festival attracts painters from across the U.S. looking for new scenes to paint in hopes of winning over $10,000 in prizes and sales commissions. Harford County offers colonial and contemporary architecture, railroad bridges and covered bridges, quiet fishing streams and boulder strewn waterfalls, bucolic farm scenes and bustling small-town streets. Look through the online gallery below to see the possibilities.
We are the friendliest plein air Festival around! We encourage juried artists to produce their best work by allowing them to work at their own pace, from July 1 to September 12, verifying their work by submitting gps imprinted and time-stamped photos or with traditional pre-stamped canvases.
Details:
- Entry juror Dr. Jacalyn Beam.
- Awards juror John Hulsey.
- Plein Air @Ladew Gardens on Thursday, September 12, with demonstration by John Hulsey.
- Artists' dinner on Thursday evening. (Location TBD.)
- Quick Draw competition for adults 18 and over on Saturday morning (free entry for all applicants to the festival registered by May 18).
- Three-day gallery and sales exhibition; included in Sunday's "Arts Across Harford" gallery crawl.
- Follow the online blog "Works-in-Progress" that displays photos and comments from the artists as they work.
- Vote for your favorite painting during the Gallery Opening on September 13 and at the Quick Draw competition on September 14.
- Visit the Gallery opening on Friday, September 13 at 6:30 pm and vote for your favorite painting.
- Stroll downtown Bel Air from 9:00 am to 12 pm on Saturday, September 14 and vote for your favorite painting.
- Visit the free Gallery at the Bel Air Armory on Saturday and Sunday, September 14-15 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.
- Paint! Enter the Community Division of the timed, two-hour Quick Draw Competition, held on Saturday, September 14, from 8:30 to 10:30.
- Support the event and the artists by becoming a sponsor or donor at: Offer Support.
Our free "Gallery Opening and Awards Ceremony" at the Bel Air Armory on Friday, September 13, with food, drinks, and entertainment, is the Grand Kick-Off to the 16-day "Arts Across Harford" celebration of local music, dance, and the literary arts, as well as multiple visual arts.
We're partnering with the Bel Air Festival of the Arts, which draws 20,000 plus visitors on Sunday, Sept. 15, at Shamrock Park, one block from the Bel Air Armory.
