http://www.enpleinairtexas.com/
EnPleinAirTEXAS is introducing young and old to the natural beauty and historical significance of our West Texas area and culture, as well as giving us a prominent spot in the international plein air movement and showcasing SAN ANGELO as a national arts destination.
A focus of EnPleinAirTEXAS and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts is to connect the area's 100 year plein air history with our West Texas community and with artists from around the world, creating an ongoing artistic dialogue that increases the visibility and participation of plein air painting with children, adults, and rural West Texas communities. Generous community support has helped make each year's event an even greater TEXAS-sized success! In 2015, local arts patron Elta Joyce McAfee started an endowment to ensure the future of EnPleinAirTEXAS. To honor her parents and family name, the Grand Prize is now named"The Elta Joyce Murphey Award". This very generous donation, and continued community & sponsor support have helped us each year to have record-breaking sales and contributions supporting the museum.
Each year the artists are wowed by the painting sites, and in the past three years have created over 750 fabulous paintings of the area's ranchlands, rivers, parks and iconic buildings all over San Angelo. Many of these paintings are now in private homes and businesses. The artists interpret a moment in time, captured on canvas or paper in their own artistic style, and these will be treasured for years to come.
EnPleinAirTEXAS aspires to change and enhance the culture of San Angelo, giving us a prominent spot in the international plein air movement and showcasing us as an arts destination. It will certainly emerge as a signature annual event for San Angelo and TEXAS in years to come.
The award-winning San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts believed in this vision, and as the perfect partner, brought this dream to reality. Our visitors and our invited artists are entertained with a full week of mostly FREE events: exciting paintouts all over San Angelo, free talks & demos, opportunities to watch the artists painting along the banks of the South Concho River in Christoval made famous by the Artist Camps of the 1920’s, and so much more.