Plein Air Litchfield
Practice Sessions Year Round
Expanded Days
$8500 in Prizes
A prestigious art event that turns Litchfield into a living Atelier,
featuring juried artists capturing the town's timeless essence.
Selected Competing Artists
In 2024, Plein Air Litchfield's inaugural event, we invited 24 competing artists from 5 states - MA, PA, MD, NY, and CT. In two days and a night, 75 paintings were produced and hung. During the ticketed reception held at Milton Hall,15 paintings sold in less than 2 hours with a total of $10,000 in sales. Awards totaled $2500, provided by generous donors.
In 2025, we tripled our sales of art in the Gala held in the Historic Firehouse of the Belden House and Mews. We hosted 34 artists from 17 different states, many of them National Award winners.
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Competition Days
Plein Air Litchfield 2026 will take place from September 12 - 20. Plein Air Litchfield was invited to partner with 5 Points Art Center and our Collector's Show & Cocktail Party will take place at the visual arts center on University Drive in Torrington this year. We will award $8500 in prizes.
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Artist: Rick Daskam
In a Nutshell
Plein Air Litchfield 2026
Dates: 9/12 - 9/13
Applications: Open in February 2026
Sponsoring Organization: Art Tripping, 501c-3
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Format: Multiple Day Event, Juried Show,
Ticketed Reception
Optional Quick Paint $15 Registration Fee
Judge of Awards: TBD
Quick Paint Prize Total: $1000
Contact: Michele Murelli, (203) 515-9337 pleinairlitchfield@gmail.com
Stephanie Plunkett, Judge of Awards, 2025
Stephanie Haboush Plunkett is the Chief Curator and Rockwell Center Director of the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the curator of many exhibitions relating to Norman Rockwell and the art of illustration, including What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine; Tony Sarg: Genius at Play; Imprinted: Illustrating Race; Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms; Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol; and The Unknown Hopper: Edward Hopper as Illustrator. She leads the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, a scholarly institute devoted to the study of illustration art.
Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School; Norman Rockwell: Drawings, 1911-1976;
Imprinted: Illustrating Race;
Tony Sarg: Genius at Play; and Leo Lionni: Storyteller, Illustrator, Designer, are recent publications.
She holds an MFA/Illustration as Visual Essay degree from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA from Pratt Institute in New York, and has held positions at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
Children’s Museum, and Heckscher Museum of Art.
OPEN QUICK PAINT
Registration/Stamping
Quick Paint --Open to Any Artist
(18 and older) and registered
Competition Artists. .
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On Sunday morning, September 13, PAL will hold a 3-hour community wide "Quick Paint" event open to artists at all levels with additional prizes.
Registration/Canvas Stamping will take place from 8:00 a.m to 9:00 a.m. @ a place TBD.
$15 registration fee for non competition artists.
Quick Paint artists can paint anywhere in Litchfield at 9:00 a.m. and stopped at 12:00 p.m. and return to the designated place, no later than 12:30 p.m. Artists will line up easels for judging and awards presentation. PAL volunteers will be on hand to help with onsite sales. PAL retains 40% of all sales.
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Later that evening, time TBD, there will be a free Pop-up Art Show & Sale at the
Litchfield Community Center;
Hospitality provided by the Litchfield Distillery and Meraki's Food Truck.
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Freeman Dodsworth, White Memorial Bridge
CALENDAR
2/1 -- Application Period opens on ShowSubmit.com
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4/1/26– Selected Artists and
Alternates Announced
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Dates 9/12 -9/20, Competition Artist Paint in and around Litchfield
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9/13/26 -- Quick Paint open to Competition Artists and Community artists, Stamping Location TBD 8:00 a.m. $15
9/19/26 Collector's Show & Cocktail Party -- Ticketed Gala Show/Reception
4:00 - 8:00, 5 Points Arts Center.
