All in plein sight: Overland Park-based art competition went wide open this year

Painting outside seems like a perfect social distancing pursuit, but the Stems Plein Air Paint is usually anything but solitary. The annual Overland Park-based art competition went ahead this year — but with some major modifications.

The competition started about 12 years ago as part of the Stems: A Garden Soirée fundraiser held by the non-profit Arts & Recreation Foundation of Overland Park. The event supported the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead and the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, as well as various city art installations.

In the past, artists have had to create their works outside, either at the Farmstead or the Arboretum during a two-week time period. When the amount of activity at the farmstead made it a more difficult painting area, the event was opened up to all of Overland Park.

“It was the impressionists who painted this way,” said Vicki Lilly, executive director of the foundation. “They were some of the first artists to paint outdoors and not in a studio. They were very interested in light and what the sun did to color. What most of these artists are looking for is to capture a moment.”

Even before the pandemic, organizers had intended to widen the area even further to include the whole metro this year. Instead, they opened it up to anywhere in the world — just this once.

“It was just to be sure we were able to get enough artists. When we were planning in March and April, nobody knew at that point if artists would be able to leave their houses,” Lilly said.

In a normal year, there would have been several events where the artists gathered in Overland Park to paint together, including a sunset event at the arboretum. There’s typically a mini-competition at these events where everything made an hour and a half period gets judged.

“These artists become quite a community. My interaction with them in the past is that they know each other. They go to paint together. They enjoy painting together,” Lilly said.

For the artists, it’s not just about the experience or the potential prizes. It’s also a chance to get their work out there in front of more people and sell it. So far, the show has sold about $12,000 of art this year. Sixty percent of the sale price goes to the artists; the rest goes to organizers to pay for the show’s expenses.

“We all believe very strongly here about keeping artists employed. Without them, we don’t have the arts. We don’t have galleries,” said Andrew Helt, gallery manager of The Rice Gallery of Fine Art, which has sponsored the event since its start.

Although a lot of the works are watercolor, acrylic or oil paintings, the show has included mixed media, pastels and pen and ink drawings.

Normally, artists enter up to three items, and the show contains about 250 to 300 works. With the added difficulties of having to ship in art from all over, this year’s show was juried, which means the artists submitted their pieces for a pre-judging to determine if they would get into the show at all. Due to space limitations, that whittled the number of entries down to 70.

Not everyone is a full time professional artist. Helt said it’s often a mix of amateurs and pros, and it’s not always the pros who take home all of the prizes. He’s seen artists return to the show year after year.

“You get to know some of these people, and you get to see them grow as painters. It’s kind of cool to see that growth,” he said. “I really love seeing professional artists take other artists’ workshops; they know they haven’t learned it all.”

The best of show award and a $2,500 prize went to Richard Sneary of Kansas City. Ranking next were Marcia Willman of Kansas City, Larry DeGraff of Lenexa and Kirstin Novak of Overland Park. Judges also named 16 honorable mentions. All received cash prizes of varying amounts.

The competition attracted entries from California, Texas, Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota as well as from across the metro.

Works selected for the show will be hanging at The Rice Gallery of Fine Art at 4829 W. 119th St. until Sept. 30.

This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "All in plein sight: Overland Park-based art competition went wide open this year."