Acclaimed artist, muralist to take part in plein air festival in Yarmouth - Press Herald

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New York-based cityscape and landscape artist Garin Baker will be a featured guest at the fourth annual Plein Air Art Festival next month in Yarmouth.

Renowned New York artist Garin Baker will be painting live at the Plein Air Art Festival’s ending soiree in Yarmouth. Contributed / Garin Baker

“I can’t wait to get up to Maine and enjoy the coastline, and continue our love affair with the unspoiled beauty,” Baker told The Forecaster. “Maine is such a great place to paint.”

The outdoor painting festival, Aug. 16-26, will conclude with a live paint event by Baker at the Plein Air Art Soiree.

Critically acclaimed for his art, Baker also is an instructor at the Arts Student League in New York City and runs a public art mural company. He has painted murals in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York and Denmark.

Baker has loved painting en plein air since high school, he said, when an art teacher would take his class out to the streets of New York City to paint.

The experience of painting outdoors is “visceral,” Baker said, igniting all the senses.

“Painting outdoors is the only way to understand and to put yourself into the situation of life,” he said. “Understanding that painting, two-dimensional art, is really not necessarily about the particular thing you’re painting, but about different life situations.”

New England plein air artist Eric Jacobsen will also be featured at the festival, and will instruct a 3-day workshop, “Adding Energy to Your Plein Air Paintings,” Aug. 24-26.

An artist paints en plein air at last year’s festival. Contributed / Catherine Bickford

Meanwhile, artists will be painting on location throughout town during the festival, and free morning and afternoon tours to see them at work will be held Aug. 26.

The festival is organized by the nonprofit Artascope studio in Yarmouth. Executive Director Catherine Bickford started the festival in 2020, when, because of the pandemic, the art community couldn’t come together in studios. The festival started as a small outdoor painting party, she said, and it has grown every year.

Bickford will lead a “Sketching from Life” mini class Aug. 17 and Aug. 24 to benefit the Yarmouth Farmers Market.

“I think it’s really fun to try to access drawing, even if you don’t think you can do it,” she said. “It’s a great way to relate to things in the world and make them more tangible.”

She emphasized the festival is not just for artists. It is a community builder, she said, and she hopes it will connect neighbors.

The festival also will include family-friendly activities, live music and food trucks. For more information and class and event tickets, go to artascope.org.

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