LPAPA Beyond the Landscape: Three Masters at the LPAPA Gallery
The Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) is renowned for its prestigious Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational, which will celebrate its twenty-seventh year, October 4 to 12, 2025.
In addition to this celebrated event, LPAPA proudly opened its own nonprofit art gallery in Laguna Beach in 2021. While the organization is dedicated to preserving the legacy and tradition of plein air painting, its mission extends beyond traditional plein air art.
Understanding Plein Air Painting
Plein air painting, the practice of creating art outdoors on location, significantly influences an artist’s studio work. Artists often take their studies, sketches, and color notes back to the studio to develop larger, more refined pieces. Some artists become so skilled at completing their work on-site that they frame and sell their plein air sketches as finished pieces. Many collectors appreciate these outdoor studies as unique additions to their collections.
The Invitational Experience
The artists selected for LPAPA’s annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational are among the top award-winning plein air painters from across the United States and beyond.
As careers evolve, some artists may choose to step back from competitions or participate less frequently in invitationals. However, LPAPA believes that their work deserves recognition within its community of artists and collectors. Since the opening of the LPAPA Gallery in 2021, the association has invited a distinguished artist each year to create a “Master Exhibition” showcase for the gallery. Past featured Master Artists include Kathleen Dunphy, Jove Wang, Ray Roberts, and John Cosby.
Introducing LPAPA’s 2025 Master Artists at the LPAPA Gallery, June 2-30, 2025
We are thrilled to share that this year, the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) will feature renowned Master Artist Jove Wang, alongside esteemed Master Artists Scott Burdick and Dan McCaw.
This unique exhibition promises to broaden your artistic experience, showcasing a diverse collection that transcends traditional landscapes and subject matters typically associated with LPAPA. Gallery visitors can expect an array of artworks, including landscapes, figurative work, and quasi-abstract art.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to engage with remarkable art and connect with fellow art enthusiasts. LPAPA looks forward to welcoming you at the gallery for the opening reception with the artists on Thursday June 5th, 6PM-9PM (free entry), followed by an exclusive LPAPA Gallery Talk on Saturday June 7th (6-8 pm, limited seating, ticketed event).
The LPAPA Gallery is located on Gallery Row in Laguna Beach, California, at 414 North Coast Highway. Gallery hours are Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment; hours are extended to 9 p.m. the first Thursday of each month for Art Walk.
The Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) is a nonprofit art organization with members across the nation, as well as a growing number of artists outside the US. Learn more about LPAPA and this special show by visiting LPAPA.org (https://lpapa.org/060225-master-gallery-art-show/) or call the LPAPA Gallery at (949) 376-3635 or Email Info@LPAPA.org.
ARTISTS’ BIOS & STATEMENTS:
Jove Wang:
Jove Wang was born in Jilin China in 1962. At the tender age of seven, he apprenticed with the master oil painter Gang Gu, subsequently studying at Jilin School of Art for three years and graduating in 1982. He was accepted into the most prestigious art institute of China, Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now known as China Academy of Art), and graduated as an honor student in 1988. In 1990 he immigrated to the United States where he soon met with success. Immersing himself in the art study and exploration of old Masters, he has established a career that has garnered him national recognition.
“I have made it my goal: Each work I paint has to be endowed with its own life and soul from deep within; be it a drama, an opera, a poem, or even a fantasy. In terms of concept and thinking of creation, I adopt the point-line-mass elements of modern design aesthetic, the expression performance of oil painting and the coordinated change of overall colors to make paintings full of life and vitality. Meanwhile, realistic tactics are used to express the spirit of modern expressionism.” — Jove Wang
Scott Burdick:
Scott was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1967 where his mother and father early on encouraged his interest in art. “I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a child and remember my mother showing me how to transform simple shapes like circles, triangles, and squares into objects like planes, helicopters, and fish. It seemed like such a magical thing and made spending so much time in casts and on crutches much more bearable.”
Scott shares, “I see painting as both a way of exploring the world and then as the vehicle of sharing those discoveries with others. I travel to find subjects to paint, as much as paint, so I can travel and expand my horizons. Through this unique language, one can say things that are impossible with words.”
“I see painting as both a way of exploring the world and then as the vehicle of sharing those discoveries with others. I travel to find subjects to paint, as much as paint, so I can travel and expand my horizons. Through this unique language, one can say things that are impossible with words.” — Scott Burdick
Dan McCaw:
Dan McCaw is a contemporary American artist that lives and works in Torrance California with his two accomplished artist sons John and Danny.
Dan’s work is a bridge between his traditional background and the contemporary influences that continually impact his art. Strong design is the foundation that his work is based upon, but curiosity is the fuel that drives his creativity. “Art flourishes in change, it expands when its limits are limitless. The artist must remain open to its possibilities and eliminate the dispassionate. The dignity of art is not in its constants but in the liberation of its possibilities.“
Influenced by the classical Masters at an early age, Dan has seen his appreciation and seduction for many different genres of art. “Anything that makes me think, makes me engage and broadens my perceptions, is of great importance and interest to me.” Dan tries to make his paintings somewhat ambiguous so that the viewer, if they wish, can participate and walk through a door that he just holds open, what you find inside becomes your own. If he defines or explains everything, Dan feels that he robs you of your own experience.
“Painting is an intimate conversation within ourselves, the canvas is like the pages of a diary, and at times the artist is willing to share this intimate conversation. The pages are fragile the edges frayed, some have been torn out of frustration, some smeared from fear of failure, some wrinkled from being held too tight, some have been dipped in dreams and dried in the sun and some are waiting to be turned. What is said between the words become more important than the words themselves. Art at its best moves something that is indefinable within myself. This is why I turn the pages.” — Dan McCaw
CONTACTS:
Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) Toni Kellenberg, President
(949) 291-0882; toni@lpapa.org
Celeste Gilles, Vice President
(949) 466-3176; celeste@lpapa.org
Bonnie Langner, Executive Director
(925) 683-8374; bonnie@lpapa.org