ABOUT
THE FESTIVAL
Every other year, the tropical island of Curaçao hosts a plein air festival. During this festival, local and international plein air artists paint outdoors at various locations on Curaçao. With oils, watercolors, pastels and other media these artists bring to life the beauty of Curaçao, its people and its culture to be permanently exposed abroad through paintings in homes, galleries and musea.
During the main event:
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Foreign and local artists produce paintings all over the island and underwater to be exhibited and sold;
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Artists produce portraits of individuals or families, estates & other objects on commission;
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Workshops are given by international and local artists, for teens and adults. Also for divers who learn to paint underwater;
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On the last day of the festival there is a paint-out competition for artists with fabulous prizes;
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An exhibitions is held at Art Foundation Curacao Gallery through the festival where many paintings created during the week are sold.
THE ORGANIZATION
Plein Air Curaçao is a project of Art Foundation Curaçao. Even though Plein Air Curaçao is an international painting festival, the organization and execution is principally a national effort and aims to involve as many locals (artists and non-artists) as possible in order to create local ownership and pride in the project produced by them. Best efforts are applied to include all who wish to volunteer and the project management actively encourages a broad participation.
With Plein Air Curaçao, the organization aims to
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organize and present a biennial outdoor painting festival, exhibitions, and other innovative events, while creating synergy by forming partnerships with organizations, institutions, foundations, businesses, and individuals both locally and internationally;
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encourage collaboration between existing- and new plein air painters, offering connections for painters from all over the world to exchange techniques and relevant knowledge;
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provide art educational content especially for children and young adults;
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provide high-quality art-related activities for locals and visiting guests;
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expose Curaçao’s beauty abroad, mainly through paintings;
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promote Curaçao as an art destination.
HISTORY
2011 - CAPTURE THE MOMENT BEFORE IT'S GONE
The first edition of the Plein Air Curaçao festival became a reality with great success, thanks to the artists, sponsors, Plein Air Eastern (USA Partner), volunteers, host families, and buddies. Forty premiere local and international outdoor painters brought the beauty of Curaçao, its people and its culture to life on their canvases. The theme was “Capture the moment before it is gone”.
2011 - CAPTURE THE MOMENT BEFORE IT'S GONE
The first edition of the Plein Air Curaçao festival became a reality with great success, thanks to the artists, sponsors, Plein Air Eastern (USA Partner), volunteers, host families, and buddies. Forty premiere local and international outdoor painters brought the beauty of Curaçao, its people and its culture to life on their canvases. The theme was “Capture the moment before it is gone”.
2011 - CAPTURE THE MOMENT BEFORE IT'S GONE
The first edition of the Plein Air Curaçao festival became a reality with great success, thanks to the artists, sponsors, Plein Air Eastern (USA Partner), volunteers, host families, and buddies. Forty premiere local and international outdoor painters brought the beauty of Curaçao, its people and its culture to life on their canvases. The theme was “Capture the moment before it is gone”.
2013 - PLEIN AIR MEETS PLEIN EAU
The second edition of the festival successfully added Plein Eau, painting underwater by divers and snorkelers. At 400 ft deep, a watercolor painting was done in a submarine. An underwater painting presentation was given by the Guinness World Record holder, Mr. Alexander Belozor (Ukraine). The theme was “Plein Eau meets Plein Air Curaçao”.
2015 - CELEBRATING THE BEAUTY OF PEOPLE.
The third edition of the festival successfully hosted both Plein Air and Plein Eau painting. Artists came from all corners of the world for the 10-day Caribbean art extravaganza. Artist George Struikelblok (Suriname) lent his expertise and enthusiasm to the Curaçao version of "Big Power of Small Blocks" whereby kids from orphanages and other youth group homes created their art by painting on small wooden blocks. Together with blocks painted by local artists, these "Curaçao Cubes" were exhibited and sold. Proceeds went towards the art programs at these institutions. The festival ended with an exciting 3-hour quick-draw competition and bustling street fair in the historic downtown area of Willemstad.
2017 - PLEIN AIR CURACAO PRESENTS: PLEIN AERIAL.
This year's theme was "Plein Aerial ".
Besides painting on land and underwater, painting sessions from high locations was included into the program. We visited the Table Mountain as a Plein Aerial paint out location, where artists had a unique view on the Spanish Waters, Santa Barbara Resort, Caracasbaai and Jan Thiel.
Another Plein Aerial location was the Juliana Bridge. This bridge is almost 60 meters high and has a spectacular 360-degree view at Punda, Otrabanda and the Isla factory. For the extreme hikers and adventurous Plein Aerial artists among us, we invited artists to the highest point of Curacao, The Christoffel Mountain, which is 372 metres (1,220 ft) high and lies in the national park Christoffelpark.
2019 - CEBLERATING 5TH EDITION
This year was very important to us as it marked the 10th year anniversary of Art Foundation Curacao’s and Plein Air Curacao’s 5th edition, which we celebrated with our wonderful team of volunteers and the talented artists that have been with us since the beginning.