Dublin Plein Air festival set to take place for its fourth year
It has been a tough few months for everyone including the arts but thanks to the fighting spirit of the artist community, this year’s Dublin Plein Air painting festival runs from Monday 20 to Sunday 26 July and will bring artists from all over Ireland to paint outdoors (en plein air) around Fingal.
With the support of the Arts Department in Fingal County Council this festival will bring artists to visit the beautiful landscapes of Skerries, Balbriggan, Donabate, Malahide, the National Botanic Gardens and Farmleigh House.
The seven-day festival is the premier outdoor painting event in Ireland. While this festival would normally attract artists from across the world this is not possible due to Covid-19 restrictions. However, this year will see artists from all over Ireland taking part as they paint at a number of locations in Fingal.
The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr. David Healy said: “It has been a tough few months for the arts community in Fingal with limited opportunities to showcase the talent that is there. So, it is great to see that the Plein Air festival will be taking place this month with artists from all parts of Ireland coming to Fingal to paint its scenic landscapes. Fingal County Council continues to support the art community during this period, and we want to reassure artists that they can rely on our continued support through professional development opportunities such as this.”
“We are fully committed to making our festival the best it can be and feel it is important that the 2020 Dublin Plein Air Festival allows artists to get back to some sort of normality.” says Paul D’Arcy “There will be a number of variations to this year’s festival the main ones being; that the number of participating artists will be limited and all seven venues will be in large open spaces to enable social distancing guidelines.”
We are an outdoor painting festival who pride ourselves in encouraging all artists to enjoy painting outdoors in an atmosphere of friendship.”
As part of the festival there will also be a number of workshops held by Irelands best artists including Una Sealy RHA and Neal Greig AURA and a ‘Quickpaint competition’ in aid of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland in which artists will paint for 2 hours in aid of the charity.
Rory O’Byrne, Fingal’s Arts Officer, said: “The Dublin Plein Air festival has been an annual Fingal event and I am delighted that we will be able to continue this event this year with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Fingal County Council is a constant supporter of the Arts in Fingal and it is imperative to ensure that artists can have access to various options designed to help them achieve creative prospects during this period.”
The Dublin Plein Air Painting Festival takes place from Monday, July 20 to Sunday, July 26 and further information is available from https://www.dublinpleinair.ie/
For further information contact
Paul D’Arcy
Tel: 0866028904
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dublinpleinair/