Plein Air Invitational
June 6 - June 14, 2025
Our 2025 Plein Air week is bigger and better than ever!
We invite you to take a look at the wonderfully talented, exceptional artists competing in this year’s competition. Coming from all over the country (and internationally!), the artists will be painting our local scenery…rivers, farmland, marine views, and gardens, competing for over $25,000 in prize money as part of the 2025 Heart of the River Collection. View the collection at The Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester, June 16th through the 28th. Thirty highly acclaimed and award-winning plein air artists will participate, visit our Meet the Artist page to find out more!
Over five days, they will portray the amazing countryside and people at work on boats and farms in the 2025 Heart of the River Collection. Find out more about becoming a Patron to enjoy exclusive opportunities to interact with the artists and to purchase the paintings during the Collector’s lottery. Patron’s tickets are available here.
A Week of Events!
June 6 ~ Brews Brine & Wine
June 7 ~ Paint Main & Symphony Under the Stars
June 10 ~ Mathews Paint Out & Reception
June 12 ~ Patron Preview Party (Patrons Only)
June 14 ~ Plein Air Gala
2025 Plein Air Invitational Judge Bob Upton
Bob Upton has been an award-winning graphic designer for 30 years. Along with his education in design, he studied drawing and painting in the academic style of Classical Realism. His training was on the figure, portraiture, and still life. He has also studied landscape outdoors.
He has a love of realism, rooted in traditional oil painting. Formal academic training in drawing and painting, combined with the outdoor palette of the French Impressionists has been the foundation of his education. Recently the love of outdoor landscape has consumed his painting. Painting directly from nature is what inspires his artwork. To “catch the day” in paint has been a goal.
Upton is an award-winning Plein Air Artist whose work has graced the cover of Plein Air Magazine as well as being a member of the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota and the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.
Bob Upton
Learn more about our judge here
“For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but its surroundings bring it to life - the air and the light.”
— Claude Monet