The Shadows-on-the-Teche received a record number 73 applicants from 19 states for the Shadows Plein Air Art Competition, now in its fifth year.
The phrase “plein air” describes art created in the open air, a process much different than producing canvases in the studio. Artists must deal with shifting angles and tones of light as well as adverse weather conditions. Visitors are invited to travel around the seven-parish area and watch artists paint en plein air.
Applications were submitted from across the United States, from California to New York and Minnesota to Florida. Thirty artists have been selected from the talented pool of applicants for this year’s competition scheduled for March 9 – 16, 2019.
30 artists will come to New Iberia to the Shadows Visitor Center on March 9, to have their blank canvases marked with the official Shadows Plein Air dated stamp before heading out into town and the surrounding six parishes to paint. Artists can paint as many pictures as they wish from Saturday, March 9, to Thursday, March 14, when they will submit their two best paintings to be judged by Florida based plein air artist and instructor Morgan Samuel Price.
Artists’ work painted throughout the week will be exhibited and available for sale at the Shadows Visitor Center. On Friday, March 15, competition winners will be announced and prizes awarded at a reception and fine arts sale, which are free and open to the public.
Other festivities planned during competition week are an art talk, painting demonstration, paint out, and quick draw competition.
On Wednesday, March 13, Price will provide a free public program on plein air painting at the Shadows Visitor Center at 6:30 p.m. In the afternoon on Thursday, March 14, Price will lead a painting demonstration in the Shadows Gardens. On Friday, March 15, all interested artists are invited to participate in a free paint out in the Shadows gardens and downtown New Iberia from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Works produced at the Paint Out will be judged, awarded ribbons, and put on display at the Shadows Visitor Center.
The competition will culminate with a Quick Draw competition the morning of Saturday, March 16. Competitors will have two hours to complete a painting in downtown New Iberia. Works will be judged, awarded ribbons and prizes, and available for sale off the easel. Participation in the Quick Draw is open to all artists for a fee of $10.
