PLEIN AIR of WASHBURN FESTIVAL 2024
Thursday, June 6 ~ Saturday, June 8
Plein Air of Washburn Festival 2024 Co-Sponsors
PAW Fest 2024 Schedule & Notes
Thursday • Friday • Saturday • NEW Events in 2024
Festival Format & Reminders
Join us for PAW Fest 2024!
The Plein Air of Washburn Festival is free to attend and welcomes aspiring artists, practicing artists new to outdoor painting, experienced plein air artists, and guests.
Join our mailing list to keep up with news and reminders about the Plein Air of Washburn Festival!
About the Plein Air of Washburn Festival
Tend to your artistic talents outside on the Chequamegon Bay
With sixteen hours of shifting sunlight, nocturnal light shows, sparkling freshwater, and rich tones of wildflowers and meadowgrass, the Chequamegon Bay area in early summer is a lush environment in which you can discover or hone your plein air aspirations. Featuring outdoor demonstrations and open-air painting sessions in various local landscapes, the Plein Air of Washburn Festival is a non-competitive and community-building painting festival that welcomes artists of all levels to learn, collaborate, and share their plein air experiences and knowledges. Participants will express their appreciation for the Chequamegon Bay’s natural topographies and built environments through outdoor painting.
Join us in Washburn, Wis., in early June for the Plein Air of Washburn Festival. No matter the weather, PAW Fest will be the catalyst for your creative summer, a breath of fresh air.
PAW Fest 2024 Schedule
Below are all the currently confirmed events and details for this year’s PAW Fest. Join the PAW Fest mailing list to be contacted about major updates/changes.
THURSDAY, JUNE 6
9:00am: Ghost Ship Gallery Meet and Greet + Art Supply Talk
Ghost Ship Gallery
Coffee and pastries provided
10:30am: Oil Painting Demonstration by Cheryl LeClair-Sommer (St. Paul, Minn.)
TBA location, TBA supply list
12pm-ish–4pm: Social Paint Session
Throughout Washburn (map of potential painting locations forthcoming)
~4pm–5pm: Afternoon Regroup
Washburn Cultural Center, 3rd Floor
Refreshments and critique of the day’s artwork
5pm: Variations: Fiber Art Opening Reception
Washburn Cultural Center, 1st Floor
All PAW Fest participants are invited to attend the public of reception of WCC’s June exhibition and meet other regional artists and art supporters
FRIDAY, JUNE 7
9:30am: Morning Meet-Up
Washburn Cultural Center, 1st Floor
Meet and assemble prior to demonstration
10am: Pastel Demonstration by Ann Christensen (Washburn, Wis.)
TBA Location
Ann’s Recommended Supplies and Suggestions
Some soft pastels, landscape colors or color set; sanded pastel paper or pastel mat; tape; backing board; an umbrella to provide shade over the painting; and an easel
12pm-ish–4pm: Social Paint Session
Throughout Washburn (map of potential painting locations forthcoming)
~4pm–5pm: Afternoon Regroup
Washburn Cultural Center, 3rd Floor
Refreshments and critique of the day’s artwork
(Dusk, Exact Time TBD): Evening Social Paint Session: Sunsets & Nocturnes
Location TBD
SATURDAY, JUNE 8
9:30am: Morning Meet-Up
Washburn Cultural Center, 1st Floor
Meet and assemble prior to demonstration
10am: Family Paint Together, Guided by Dana M. Johnson (Bayfield, Wis.)
Aimed at all ages (bring the family!) and welcoming of artists of all levels, this hands-on art-making experience allows budding artists and their families and friends to enjoy the outdoors and fill their sketchbooks with painted memories.
Dana M. Johnson’s traveling sketching setup.
Dana’s Recommended Supplies & Suggestions
Dress for the weather: hat, sunglasses, coat. Folding chair/blanket if you would like to sit. Bring a sketchbook/paper and your favorite materials. If you are new to painting, there will be some materials to share.
Dana's favorite materials: small travel watercolor set, or water crayons, and a waterbrush.
Find materials: Ghost Ship Gallery carries some great basic supplies!
12pm-ish–4pm: Social Paint Session
Throughout Washburn (map of potential painting locations forthcoming)
~4pm–5pm: Afternoon Post-Festival Regroup & Clothesline Show
Washburn Cultural Center, 3rd Floor
All PAW Fest participants are welcome to exhibit work created/initiated during PAW Fest 2024 in The PAW Fest 2024 Clothesline Show—artworks will be hung from clips, so no need to frame! Refreshments will be provided. See more below.
Notes on PAW Fest 2024
NEW EVENTS THIS YEAR!
Saturday’s Demonstration: Family Paint Together
While all demonstrations are open to artists of all ages and experience levels, this year we’ve added the Family Paint Together on Saturday morning, June 8, guided by Dana M. Johnson. An experienced plein air painter and all-ages art educator, Johnson has crafted the Paint Together as an interactive event geared toward student-aged artists and their friends (Pre-K to Grade 12), working with their families or guardians, to create artwork together, with ample time for hands-on art-making. All children under 15 are expected to be accompanied by an adult guardian.
Friday Evening Social Paint Session: Sunsets & Nocturnes
Join other plein air artists at dusk to paint Friday’s sunset and a Washburn night scene. More details, meeting time/location to come!
Saturday’s Regroup: The 2024 Clothesline Show
All PAW Fest 2024 participants are welcome to enter any work(s) they have created/initiated during the Festival for exhibition in The PAW Fest Clothesline Show, which will be on view at WCC through the month of June—feel free to enter partially completed plein air work, or works predominantly created en plein air but completed in-studio during the Festival. (Art will be hung from clips, so there’s no need to frame them.) Saturday’s Afternoon Regroup will serve as a small celebration of all artists who participated in, and the work they created during, PAW Fest 2024!
PAW Fest Format & Reminders
Demonstrations
PAW Fest’s outdoor demos are an opportunity for experienced plein air practitioners to share both their widely applicable and medium-specific insights to approaching painting outside the studio’s walls. This year’s PAW Fest demonstrators work in the mediums of oil, pastel, and watercolor, but artists working in all mediums are invited to watch the process of beginning to create a work en plein air—artists may also choose to begin preparing their own plein air compositions in their preferred medium(s) during the demo, but please note that demos are not formal instructional/critique workshop sessions.
Please remember to dress for the weather and to ensure your own comfort by bringing chairs, hats, sunglasses, umbrellas, and hydration and sustenance for yourself!
This year, we’ve shortened the duration of the morning demos, allowing you to save some energy for the afternoon Social Paint Sessions, when you can apply demonstrators’ techniques to your own work.
As in previous years, demo locations will be determined close to or on the day, to take into account weather and attendance. Demo locations and directions will be announced during each Morning Meet-Up, and artists will often follow one another to that day’s location. If you are unable to attend the Meet-Up, watch the WCC and CBAC Facebook page for updates; demo locations will also be posted on the front and rear entrances of the WCC Bank Building each morning.
Social Paint Sessions
Social Paint Sessions are non-instructional, non-demonstration sessions that provide extended time for artists to apply approaches and techniques from the demonstrations to their own work. As in previous years, at the end of each demo and before you break for lunch, one organizer will announce the location of a primary Social Paint location, in which artists may gather to paint with one another in the same vicinity. Artists are also invited to paint independently in a location suggested on the (forthcoming) map.
Afternoon Regroups
Finished painting socially for the day? Make your way to WCC around 4pm for light refreshments after an afternoon of outdoor painting. Afternoon Regroups are an opportunity to rehydrate and get your blood sugar up, display your artistic output from the day, and discuss your creative successes (or distresses!) from your afternoon of painting with fellow PAW Fest artists.
Festival Accessibility
PAW Fest's organizers aim to make the Festival a welcoming environment for all, though limitations regarding accessibility that are inherent to the nature of outdoor painting may exist. When joining the PAW Fest mailing list, please note any access-related requirements or experiences from past PAW Fests that organizers should take into account when determining and planning for the Festival's accessibility. Organizers may follow up with you directly about your response. If you would prefer to contact Festival organizers directly or anonymously with inquiries or concerns, please email the Washburn Cultural Center, who will forward your comments on to PAW Fest organizers.
Photo Consent
PAW Fest organizers may take photos or videos during all PAW Fest events.
PAW Fest attendees grant PAW Fest organizers the right to include photographic, video, and other visual documentation of themselves and their children/dependents (minor or not, if applicable) in any medium (including, but not limited to, printed and digital marketing and on social media platforms) for current and future marketing and publicity purposes by the PAW Fest Organizing Committee and PAW Fest sponsors.
If a PAW Fest attendee chooses to opt out of this photo consent, please tell the PAW Fest organizers while they are capturing photos or videos.
The 2024 Plein Air of Washburn Festival is a collaborative venture between the Washburn Cultural Center, the Chequamegon Bay Arts Council, and Ghost Ship Gallery.
