Artists are setting up easels along the Lake Erie shoreline in Bay Village this weekend as BAYarts hosts its annual Plein Air Paint Out, a juried outdoor painting competition running Friday through Sunday. The event welcomes both community members and regional artists to paint live on the nonprofit's Huntington Reservation campus, with works ranging from realism to abstract style judged for cash prizes and public display.
The three-day gathering, held October 2 through October 4, requires that all submitted artwork be created entirely on-site in true plein air fashion, with no off-site work or reference photos allowed, according to Cleveland.com. Participating artists pay a $45 registration fee that covers administrative costs and prize funding, and organizers require in-person check-in with canvas or paper stamping on-site October 2 and 3 between 8 a.m. and noon, according to BAYarts. That stamping step exists specifically to prevent artists from submitting works painted before the competition officially begins.
Artists may submit up to two original two-dimensional works created during the event, and those pieces then enter a juried contest judged this year by Nicole Maye Luga. Luga is a contemporary realist landscape painter who earned her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Grant for FY2025, and exhibited at the Butler Institute of American Art's National Midyear Exhibition for five consecutive years, per The Art Guide. She works primarily in oils and specializes in plein air landscape painting done from direct observation.
Prizes, Categories, and How to Enter
Best of Show carries a $500 award, with $250 for 1st Place, $150 for 2nd Place, and $100 for 3rd Place, the same Cleveland.com report notes. Beyond the main juried exhibition, artists can pay an extra $10 fee to compete in standalone Nocturne Paint and Quick Paint contests, each offering its own $100 cash prize — testing painters under nighttime conditions or strict time limits, respectively, per the same BAYarts event listing. Awards will be presented during an artist reception on October 4 from 2 to 4 p.m.
The competition is open to artists 18 and older, and hopeful participants must submit a completed registration form in person or by calling BAYarts at 440-871-6543, according to Cleveland.com's report. Participating artists' works will be displayed during the closing reception and made available for public viewing and purchase in the Sally J. Otto Gallery, with select pieces remaining on view through November 7.
A Fourth Year Rooted in Lakeside Scenery
This year's Paint Out marks the fourth annual edition of the event, which BAYarts first established in September 2023 specifically to take advantage of the unique lakeside scenery offered by the surrounding Cleveland Metroparks land, according to the organization's own account. The event is centered on the BAYarts campus at 28795 Lake Road and spills into the surrounding Huntington Reservation, with Lake Erie providing the scenic backdrop for painters throughout the weekend.
BAYarts itself traces its roots back to 1948, when it was founded as a suburban community arts group called Baycrafters. The organization initially operated out of a local museum basement before relocating to its permanent campus in 1962, a history that underscores nearly eight decades of cultural presence in the area, per BAYarts. The campus today includes the Victorian-style Irene Lawrence Fuller House, built in 1892, which was saved from demolition in 1984 and famously transported to the park via barge across Lake Erie, according to WeddingWire. The fully restored house now serves as the organization's main cultural center alongside an 1882 train depot on the grounds.
Painting Grounds With Deep Industrial Roots
The 100-acre Huntington Reservation that hosts the event was originally the private summer estate and hobby farm of industrialist John Huntington, a founder of the Cleveland Museum of Art, before Cleveland Metroparks purchased the property in 1925 for $500,000, according to Cleveland Historical. Huntington made his fortune in roofing and oil refining before turning to philanthropy and founding major Cleveland arts institutions. The reservation's northern Lake Erie shore now draws nearly one million visitors each year for swimming, hiking, and lakefront recreation, per BAYarts.
Visitors and artists alike are subject to Cleveland Metroparks rules along the shoreline, which ban fires, grills, pets, and unauthorized watercraft, and require people to stay off the erosion-prevention rock jetties that line the beach, according to Cleveland Metroparks. Five stone break walls extend 350 feet into Lake Erie to protect the bluffs from wave erosion.
More to See on Campus This Weekend
Paint Out attendees will also have the chance to view Josh Chefitz's exhibition What Survives in the BAYarts Sullivan Family Gallery through October 3, with Alison McKim's Deep Earth Dreaming set to open October 9, according to BAYarts' event listings. The overlapping programming means visitors can pair a stroll through the reservation's painting sites with a look at the organization's indoor gallery offerings during the same weekend.
