Stockton, California

Following the success of the 2007-2008 exhibition From the Heart, the Plein-Air Painters of America will return to The Haggin Museum in October 2009 for American Legacy: Our National Parks.

In this exhibition, 35 members and guests of the Plein-Air Painters of America (PAPA) set up their easels in national sites across the country. PAPA was established as a by-invitation painting group in 1986, and the artists are among the country’s most respected plein-air painters.

The adjective plein-air refers to the philosophical belief that creating art on-location, challenging as it may be, is crucial to successfully documenting a visual and emotional point in time and place.

Each artist selected a favorite park to document during the period from the summer of 2008 to spring of 2009. The more than 100 paintings depict sites from coast to coast, border to border, and from the earliest park designation to one of the most recent. The exhibition is a “field journal” experience that draws viewers into seasonal and daily experiences of color and light rendered in pigment on paper or canvas. In some instances, the field studies were used to create larger, studio paintings.

Time: 1:30-5:00 p.m.
Wednesday-Sunday

1:30-9:00 p.m.
1st & 3rd Thursdays