Dublin 40th Anniversary 'Paint Out' Plein Air Painting Winners

The Dublin Arts Collective (DAC) nonprofit partnered with the City of Dublin to host the first 'Paint Out', plein air painting competition.

The official judge for the event was accomplished watercolor artist Carolyn Lord who gave invaluable commentary on the winning paintings. Carolyn currently has three paintings at Stockton's Haggin Museum as part of a juried exhibition, in its 61st year, that recognizes, promotes and rewards artistic excellence in Northern California.

Dublin 40th Anniversary 'Paint Out' Winners were:

Best of Show:
Jennifer Huber

Merit Awards:
Kristian Matthews
Rick Ingraham

Honorable Mentions:
Duo Hu
Andy Forest
Najeeb Abdulrahiman
Doug Woodman

People's Choice:

Maitrayi Pithadiya

Prizes were presented by Carolyn Lord and Sawsan Wolski, DAC president, at a gathering at Dublin Heritage Park and museums where the paintings could also be viewed and purchased. Attendees also got to vote for the People's Choice Award which was won by Maitrayi Pithadiya, who also received a special gift donated by the Frame Company & Art Gallery based in Village Parkway.

Chief organizers for the event were Dublin artists Lorraine Wells (Chair) and Alka Vaidya (Co-Chair).

Artists came from across the Bay Area to participate in this contest where they had two days to paint a location of their choice in Dublin. Included in the artworks were the Dublin historical schoolhouse, library, St Raymond’s Church, the old Barn, various street and nature scenes and even the Regal cinema.

Although the day was bright and sunny the wind was gusting at times and artists needed to add extra weight to their easels to secure their paintings. Nevertheless they thoroughly enjoyed the experience and those new to Dublin were pleasantly surprised at the number of paint-worthy locations.

Attendees at the prize-giving commented on the superlative quality of the paintings entered for the competition and it was no surprise that many of them were sold on site.

“We are thrilled with the success of this first plein air painting event and are thankful to all the volunteers who brought it to fruition. Our co-sponsors, the City of Dublin have provided excellent support and we’ve already been asked by several artists whether this will be an annual event,” said Sawsan Wolski.

The local arts community came out in support of this first for Dublin including a representative from Porygon Studios LLC Media who volunteered to take photos at the event.

Local creatives interested in attending future arts events in the Tri-Valley can attend the joint Livermore Art Association, Pleasanton Art League and DAC general meeting tonight, Monday May 9, at the Bothwell Arts Center at 7:30pm. The event is free and open to the public and the topic for today is “Colored pencils” led by Jennifer Linderman.