Art Competition Sheds Light On Auburn's Architecture, Landscapes, Open Air

AUBURN – Artists  assembled at Auburn Tuesday to compete under the city’s architecture, landscapes and open air.

A rank of 17 impressionists registered for the inaugural Auburn Strokes Paint Out, which features art demonstrations, an art auction and live music on Saturday.

 

Debra Joy Groesser, an impressionist from Ralston and competition judge, gave a video presentation for Auburn High School art classes from the Rural Impact Hub in Auburn.

Groesser: “I love plein air so much. I’ve been painting plein air since 1996 and it’s just my favorite thing to do. I’m a fair weather plein air painter. I don’t go out when it’s cold. Everything about it I love. I love being able to capture the light and the color.

“When I’ve competed in plein air events like this one, all over the country, one of my favorite things to hear people say is ‘I walk by that 100 times a week and I never noticed it’ or ‘never saw it that way.’

"As an artist, part of our job it to help you see things through an artist’s eyes, maybe to appreciate your surroundings and what’s around you in a whole way you’ve never thought of, you never noticed before.”

She said Auburn is a good place for the competition, especially with so many artists who have never competed like this before.

 

Groesser: “Artists need to have competitions of different levels, so they can feel comfortable getting their feet wet and starting, so I think Auburn is a perfect place for it.”

Groesser will choose first, second and third in the categories of overall, rural scene and historic. She  wants to see the skill of the artist and get a sense of the time and place.

Groesser: “Well, first of all, it has to be technically good. I’m kind of a stickler for drawings, so things that are well drawn, really catch my eye. But just as important as that, I want to feel the time of day, what the weather conditions were … the light, because plein air is all about painting the light and painting that particular moment in time of that scene.”

 

 

She told the high school students that it’s important for an artists to learn plein air painting

Groesser: “Probably the biggest reason is you see color and light so much more accurately when you paint from life,  just like the impressionists did back in France.”

She says painting from photographs is common, but not quite as vivid as open air, painting from life.