Mendocino Open Paint Out Award Winners Announced
The Mendocino Art Center (MAC) hosted two prestigious featured artists and 50 participating artists, visiting from throughout California, as part of the eighth annual Mendocino Open Paint Out (MOPO), a plein air festival, September 24-26. The event presented the public with free opportunities to view artists paint en plein air, attend featured artist
hosted demonstrations, shop “wet paint” sales, with new watercolor, oil, pastel, acrylic, and mixed media paintings hung each day, and watch the Quick Draw Competition and cast a vote for the winning piece.
During the weekend, the artists painted 192 works of art, including 42 paintings created in a two-hour Quick Draw Competition. A MOPO awards celebration was held on Sunday, September 26, to present 19 awards, juried
by the featured artists, Ellen Howard and Dale Laitinen.
Select paintings from the plein air festival have been curated for a special exhibition, September 29 through October 31, including many of the works that received awards.
“Best of” awards were bestowed in four different media: Stephen Berry (Vallejo), “The Fog Rolled in Soft & Quiet,” watercolor; J.V. Magoon (Lower Lake), “Lake Cleone,” pastel; Ryan Jensen (Blue Lake),
“Friend Painting,” oil; and David Savellano (Alameda), “Postcards from Mendocino,” mixed media.
Honorable mention awards for oil paintings were given to Roseanne Burke (Nevada City), “The Ford House in Fog”; Timothy Horn (Fairfax), “Sun in Willits”; John Bucklin (San Rafael), “Mendocino Headlands”; Kristian Matthews (Vacaville), “Working Late”; Carol Tarzier (Oakland), “Evening Falls”; Sterling Hoffman
(Yorkville), “Headlands Bliss”; Julia Munger Seelos (Redwood City), “Paradise Found”; and Rose Irelan (Poway), “A Touch of Light.”
Additional honorable mentions were awarded to Teresa Steinbach-Garcia (Wilton), “Fresh Air,” pastel; Jennifer Laurel Keller (Sacramento), “Big River Estuary,” acrylic; Najeeb Abdulrahiman (Fremont), “Portuguese Beach,” watercolor; and Barbara Tapp (Kensington), “Lay of the Land,” watercolor.
A Founder’s Award, given by Mendocino Open Paint Out co-founders and local artists John Hewitt and Dale E. Moyer, was bestowed to Carlo Grunfeld, “Queen Anne’s Lace,” watercolor. An Early Bird Award for the best painting hung by the end of the first day of the event went to Kristian Matthews, “SunBleached Stone,” oil. And, the Quick Draw Competition People’s Choice Award, voted on by the public, was received by Najeeb Abdulrahiman, “Kasten Street,”
watercolor.
Support for the Mendocino Open Paint Out was provided by Big River Coffee, Café Beaujolais, Goodlife Cafe and Bakery, Harvest Market, North Coast Brewing Company, Prentice
Gallery, Racine’s/Spunky Skunk, Roundman’s Smoke House, Safeway, Sea Pal Cove Restaurant, Stanford Inn By the Sea and Village Veterinary.
For more information please call 707-937-5818 or visit MendocinoArtCenter. org. The Mendocino Art Center is located at 45200 Little Lake Street (at Kasten Street) in Mendocino. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.