The story
Plein Air Easton in Easton
Plein Air Easton, run by the nonprofit Avalon Foundation since around 2005, is described as the largest and most prestigious juried plein air painting competition in the United States. Each July, fifty-eight juried artists selected by a distinguished juror travel to Talbot County to paint outdoor scenes from life, culminating in ticketed Collectors and Meet the Artists parties where original work is sold directly.
The Avalon Foundation, a nonprofit that began in 1994 as a community theatre organization, has grown over three decades into the largest arts organization on Maryland's Eastern Shore, operating the historic Avalon Theatre in downtown Easton and, since around 2005, running Plein Air Easton, an annual juried outdoor painting competition now widely described as the largest and most prestigious event of its kind in the United States.