Thirty painters from across the country are converging on Laguna Beach this weekend, easels in tow, for the 28th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational. The nine-day event runs Saturday through Oct. 11, with artists fanning out across the city's cliffs, canyons and coves to capture the coastal light that has drawn painters here for more than a century.
The invitational is organized by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, known as LPAPA, which describes the gathering as welcoming “30 of the nation's elite plein air masters,” according to lpapa.org. For nine days, the acclaimed artists will take to the cliffs, canyons and coves that have made Laguna Beach synonymous with outdoor painting, the organization says. The Los Angeles Times reports the painters will use Laguna Beach's coastline, hills, parks and historic streets as their subjects, with 30 competitors vying for a share of more than $50,000 in cash prizes.
A Century-Old Art Colony Reawakens
Organizers frame the invitational as more than a contest — it's a nod to Laguna Beach's roots as an artists' colony. Over a century ago, painters drawn to the city's coastline and light built that colony, which went on to shape plein air painting across the West Coast, according to a release carried by einpresswire.com. LPAPA says its mission is built around preserving that heritage, according to the Laguna Beach Independent.
That framing isn't just marketing language. The event continues a tradition that outdoor painting outlet Outdoor Painter has described as a century-old practice that helped establish Laguna Beach as an art colony in the first place. For a city whose identity is so wrapped up in its artistic past, watching 30 painters set up along the bluffs this October functions as something close to civic memory in action.
Quick Draw Kicks Off the Action at Heisler Park
The public portion of the invitational begins Sunday with the Quick Draw Painting Competition at Heisler Park, free and open to the public from 1 to 3 p.m. Spectators can watch all 30 artists race against a two-hour clock to complete original paintings on the spot, with a silent auction to follow, per the event details shared via einpresswire.com.
The invitational builds toward its two marquee events the following weekend. On Oct. 10, the Collectors Art Party at the Festival of Arts grounds will give ticket holders first access to purchase from more than 250 original paintings produced during the week. Tickets run $250, or $225 for LPAPA members. The invitational then wraps Oct. 11 with the Laguna Plein Air Art Festival, a free public exhibition and sale open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A Returning Champion and Familiar Names
Among the artists returning this year is Jason Li, a Yorba Linda resident and Festival of Arts exhibitor who made history at the 2025 invitational by becoming the first artist to win Best in Show while working in watercolors, according to the Los Angeles Times. Li's winning piece last year, “Catching Sunset,” was a 12-by-16-inch painting that earned him $10,000.
Also returning are Colorado's Kathleen B. Hudson, Minnesota's Carl Bretzke and Northern California artist Ryan Jensen, each of whom placed among last year's award winners. Hudson's “Nightfall, Laguna Beach” earned the Award of Excellence and a $5,000 prize in 2025, while Bretzke, a past Best in Show honoree, took home the Jean Stern Distinctive Merit Legacy Award and $2,500 for “By The Shower at Dusk.” Jensen repeated as winner of the Kinsman Family “Best Laguna” Award, this time for “Light on the Boardwalk.”
The pattern of repeat winners isn't new to this invitational. Bretzke previously claimed the event's Best in Show prize in 2021 for a different painting, and past years have seen six-figure prize pools distributed across dozens of categories — the 25th annual invitational alone handed out 28 awards worth more than $55,000 in cash and prizes. Whether this year's prize structure will match that scale hasn't been detailed by organizers, but the lineup of returning talent suggests Laguna's plein air scene remains as competitive as ever heading into its 28th year.
