Castine Plein Air Festival 2015

Me at the 2013 Castine Plein Air Festival

If you haven't heard, the Castine Plein Air Festival will start in just a few days.  This will be the third year for the Festival, and I am honoured to be an invited artist again.  I won an award each of the last two years, which automatically gets me an invitation.  Otherwise, it is a juried event, which guarantees there will be many fine painters.

This year's festival runs for three days, July 23-25, as it did last year.  Forty-two artists will arrive Wednesday evening, July 22nd, at which time we'll have a reception so we can meet each other as well as the organizers and support staff.  Early the next morning, Thursday the 23rd, we'll meet on the town common to get our canvases stamped – and then we're off!  We'll be painting boats, wharves, lighthouses, quaint old houses beneath the elms and, yes, even the natural landscape.  Then on Saturday the 25th at noon artists will turn in their framed paintings.  The reception and sale will be that afternoon from 4-6 pm at the Alfond Student Center at the Maine Maritime Academy.  For details on the event, visit http://www.castinearts.org/plein-air-festival/.

USS State of Maine 12x24 oil/panel by Michael Chesley Johnson

I painted this 12x24 oil painting last year of the USS State of Maine.  It's an impressive boat!  If you have a connection with the Maine Maritime Academy, which is located in Castine, perhaps you'd like to have it.  I will be taking it to Castine with me and can deliver it, or you can pick it up.  (I can also ship it.)  Contact me for price.

I'm really looking forward to being in Castine again for the festival.  After two years of participating, I have some great locations in mind for this year.  I hope to see you on the street or at the reception and sale!