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Friday, October 17th |
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LPAPA Breaks Records This Year |
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Best in Show: Jason Li, "Catching Sunset," watercolor, 12 x 16 in. |
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Enjoy this recap of this year’s Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational, written by Toni Kellenberg:
The 27th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational, presented last week by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA), concluded with record-breaking art sales and ideal weather for the 30 invited artists. Southern California artist Jason Li was awarded the highly coveted $10,000 “Best in Show” prize for his watercolor, “Catching Sunset.” The event, which revealed over $50,000 in cash and prizes, benefits the participating artists and sustains nonprofit LPAPA’s year-round art and education programs.
Li’s win marks the first time in Invitational history that a watercolor painting has received the top Best in Show Award, and the first year the judges selected a landscape not depicting Laguna Beach. Li’s winning painting, “Catching Sunset,” was selected by a distinguished panel of judges including Jean Stern (Emeritus Director of The Irvine Museum), Rosemary Swimm (LPAPA’s Director Emeritus), and Ned Mueller (LPAPA Signature Artist and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient). Li also swept the Invitational’s public-voted Quick Draw competition award for his piece, “Breakthrough.”
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LPAPA Best in Show Award Winner Jason Li (left), Judge Ned Mueuller (back), Judge Jean Stern (front), Judge Rosemary Swimm (right); photo by Scott Brashier |
Other Major Awards and Accolades at the 2025 Laguna Plein Air Painters Association Invitational:
The $5,000 Award of Excellence was presented to Colorado-based artist Kathleen B. Hudson for “Nightfall, Laguna Beach.” Hudson also received the 32 Winds Winery “Artist in Residence” Award.
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LPAPA Award of Excellence: Kathleen Hudson, “Nightfall, Laguna Beach,” oil, 12 x 24 in. |
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Last year’s Best in Show Winner, Minnesota artist Carl Bretzke, received the $2,500 Jean Stern Distinctive Merit Legacy Award for “By The Shower at Dusk.”
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Jean Stern Distinctive Merit Legacy Award: Carl Bretzke, “By the Shower at Dusk,” oil, 16 x 20 in. |
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Debra Huse was awarded The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, “Artist in Residence” Award. For the second consecutive year, Ryan Jensen received the Kinsman Family “Best Laguna” Award for “Light on the Boardwalk.”
Ryan Jensen received the PleinAir Magazine Award for “Sunlight Through a Tree” and Terry Miura received the Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine Award for “Solitude at Sunset.”
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PleinAir Magazine Award: Ryan Jensen, “Sunlight Through a Tree,” oil, 18x 24 in. |
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Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine Award: Terry Miura, “Solitude at Sunset,” oil, 10 x 20 in. |
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Honoring Lifetime Achievements and Contributions:
- Signature Artist Ned Mueller was recognized with the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to teaching and extraordinary body of work.
- Tracie and Brian Sullivan were recognized with LPAPA’s 2025 Lifetime Member Award for their passionate collection and long-term support of the organization.
- Zufar Bikbov received the 2025 Artists’ Choice Award for his exceptional body of work, as voted by the Invitational Artists.
- Aimee Erickson’s “Dreaming of PCH” received the inaugural “Sunday Best” Award for the newly added Sunday Small Works Show.
LPAPA’s Mission: Preserving the Legacy and Inspiring the Future
In keeping with its mission, LPAPA hosted several key educational events, including the annual Future Generation Paint Out (for LBUSD students) and the Next Generation Paint Out (for Laguna College of Art + Design students). Student artwork will be on exhibit at the LPAPA Gallery through December 1st, with proceeds supporting the students’ schools and emerging LCAD artists.
Four LCAD students received scholarship awards:
1st Place: Anne Lin (“Overcast”)
2nd Place: Gyongy Sza’szva’rosi (“High Tide”)
3rd Place: Maya Buchwald (“Morning Tide”)
Honorable Mention: Arthur Zhang (“Cerulean Waves”) |
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LCAD Scholarship, 1st Place: Anne Lin, “Overcast,” gouache, 12 x 9 in. |
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LPAPA also collaborated with the Laguna Art Museum on its annual “Plein Talks,” featuring Invitational Artists and a separate panel of Art Experts who shared their insights on the past, present, and future of plein air painting.
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Tell us! Are you an artist who immigrated to the United States? Tell us about your experience and what it means to you to paint America. Send us your answer along with a high-res photo of you and a couple of your paintings, and you might see yourself in PleinAir Magazine!
~Kelly and CherieDawn |
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Art Inspiration: Sorolla’s Garden |
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By Kelly Kane, Editor-in-Chief, PleinAir Magazine |
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Sorolla’s garden |
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Like many of his fellow Impressionists in France, Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923) designed extensive gardens around his home and studio in Madrid (now the Sorolla Museum) as a reflection of his own creativity and works of art in themselves. Inspired by the intimate spaces of the Arabic-style gardens surrounding the Alcázar and Alhambra in Granada, he combined the sinewy curves of Art Nouveau sculpture with classical columns and bold Moorish tilework to create a garden that was at once contemporary, European, and Mediterranean. In a series of engaging spaces, bubbling fountains provided the background music for the stars of the show — the play of light filtering through the plants and the explosion of color, which reflected the palette of the painter himself.
Painting at a low point in Spain’s history — nearly bankrupt and seized with social unrest after the loss of the Spanish-American War — Sorolla set out to create a new image for his country. Eschewing the traditional notion of Spain as dark, exotic, and mysterious, he chose instead to celebrate contemporary life, presenting an optimistic picture of vibrant youths, dazzling beaches, dramatic landscapes, and, of course, his own quiet garden.
The many paintings the artist created of the subject, with different moods and in a variety of styles, attest to the importance he placed on the space. One of his final works, “Garden of the Sorolla House,” depicts the empty wicker chair where Sorolla used to sit and paint. While painting in his garden in June 1920, he suffered a massive stroke from which he never recovered.
(Click here to see the first article in this installment on “Secret Spaces That Became Art: Giverny”)
Editor’s Note: Join us for the 6th Annual Plein Air Live online art conference, featuring Kathleen Hudson, Kevin Macpherson, Kami Mendlik, and many more! The event takes place November 6-8, 2025, with an Essential Techniques Day on November 5. Learn more at PleinAirLive.com.
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