Our juror Allison Malafronte of American Artist magazine had a difficult time selecting the finalists out of the many entries and limited amount of space at this first-year competition. "I looked for paintings that were not only strongly composed and well executed technically but that also conveyed a sense of place, light, and time," she said. "Many of the paintings
I reviewed possessed several of these qualities, but the ones I chose for Cranford Plein Air had a strong balance of all these elements."
The inaugural event has a star studded field with many award winners from other prestigious events. It is truly "international" in scope with painters coming as far away as Germany to those from the host town of Cranford.
Allison Malafronte
Entries and Awards Judge
Allison Malafronte is the senior editor of American Artist magazine in New York City. She has been at the publication for six years and regularly writes and edits feature articles on historical and contemporary practitioners of the plein air movement. She also maintains a blog on plein air painting for the magazine's website, Artist Daily. In addition to writing and editing for American Artist and the magazine's three quarterlies (Drawing, Workshop, and Watercolor) she is also the coordinator of American Artist's Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference, which gathers some of today's top figure, portrait, still life, and plein air painters for four days of instruction, interaction, and discussion centered on traditional art.
Participating Artists
