FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 26, 2011

PAPA President Frank LaLumia announced that the opening weekend events for PAPA’s 23rd exhibition and sale at The Haggin Museum in Stockton, California, were a huge success. “More than 300 collectors attended the opening on Friday night, and on Saturday, countless spectators watched the artists painting along Stockton’s downtown waterfront and then bid on the artworks in a by-draw auction.”  Earlier in the week, Steven Doherty, editor of PleinAir Magazine, gave a talk titled “Plein Air Painters: Crazy About Nature or Just Plain Crazy?”

The exhibition, which is titled The Allure of Water: On Location with the Plein-Air Painters of America, includes more than 100 paintings by 33 PAPA members and seven guest artists. It remains on view and for sale at the museum through January 22, 2012. The show’s theme was expressed by the artists in a variety of subjects that featured our planet’s most precious resources:  oceans, rivers, creeks, waterfalls, glaciers, rain clouds, lakes, arroyos, harbors, canals, tide pools, snow, and more. The on-location and studio paintings originated in locales around the world, from China to Italy and throughout North America.

The exhibition and weekend events can be viewed in a variety of formats:

•    The exhibition paintings are on PAPA's Facebook page in Albums A to L and M to W.  Painting thumbnails with prices are on  The Haggin Museum site.
•    PAPA’s Facebook page also has albums for the Saturday demonstration paintings, several of which address the same subject but through different eyes.
•    Outdoor Painter, home of PleinAir Magazine, covers the painting demonstration and outdoor works from earlier in the week.
•    Videos of the painting demonstration are found at Recordnet VIDEO and at YouTube.
•    A 102-page color catalog documents all the artworks.

PAPA members participating in the event are: Peter Adams, Ken Auster, Kenn Backhaus, Betty Billups, Christopher Blossom, John Budicin, Scott Burdick, John Cosby, Gil Dellinger, Mary DeLoyht-Arendt, Don Demers, Louise DeMore, Gay Faulkenberry, West Fraser, Lynn Gertenbach, Raleigh Kinney, Frank LaLumia, Joan M. LaRue, Jean LeGassick, Kevin Macpherson, Joseph Mendez, Ned Mueller, Ralph Oberg, Joe Paquet, Jean Perry, Ron Rencher, Ray Roberts, Jane Shuss, Matt Smith, Brian Stewart, John Stobart, George Strickland, Linda Tippetts, and Skip Whitcomb. 

Guest artists are:  Bill Anton, Kathleen Dunphy, Andy Evansen, Gerald Fritzler, Michael Lynch, Jim Morgan, and Randall Sexton.