5-Day Plein Air Paint Festival
Paint the rolling farmlands, dramatic river banks, charming downtown areas, prairies, and forests of Buffalo, Chippewa, Dunn, Pepin, and Eau Claire Counties of western Wisconsin.
GO Paint! Chippewa Valley
10th Year of GO Paint! Sept 24-30
This September, paint the days and nights away in the beautiful Chippewa Valley when we welcome the reds, yellows, and oranges of Fall in the 10th year of the plein air art festival GO Paint! Chippewa Valley. Find a hidden valley, river cove, sidewalk café, or rustic barn: there are so many opportunities for a beautiful painting experience in our region.
Register for the Fall 2022 GO Paint!
All registered GO Paint! artists are invited to exhibit up to 5 works of art for each GO Paint event. All artwork will be exhibited virtually on our website and must be for sale. This is a great opportunity for our community to purchase a local landscape for their business or home.
Spring 2022 Exhibition Now Open
Reflected Light: The Art of GO Paint! | Brady & Jeanne Foust Gallery - Pablo Center
The 2022 Spring GO Paint! Chippewa Valley exhibition is now open for viewing in-person and virtually. Pablo Center galleries are open Monday - Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. plus 2 hours before events.
Spring 2022 GO Paint! Exhibit
Explore our previous GO Paint! Exhibits.
ARTIST INFORMATION
Artists are required to register to participate. Exhibiting artists will be allowed to submit up to 5 works of art that have been created outdoors, within a 10-mile radius of the Eau Claire & Chippewa Rivers Between Augusta, Cornell, Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Durand, & Nelson, Wisconsin.
All artworks will be exhibited in-person and virtually on our website. All artwork presented for the exhibition must be for sale. All sales, including purchase awards, will incur a commission.
Download the information brochure below.
Register for Fall 2022 GO Paint Now Open
- Fall GO Paint! Registration - $30
GO Paint! Chippewa Valley Awards
Adult Quick Paint Awards
- Best of Show: Cash Award - $200
- First Place: Cash Award - $100
- Second Place: Cash Award - $75
- Third Place: Cash Award - $50
Exhibit Awards
- Best of Show - $500
- First Place - $250
- Second Place - $150
- Third Place - $100
- Best River - $200
Best of Pablo Center at the Confluence
- Cash Award - $200 This award will be selected by Pablo Center Staff
Participation Award
- Cash Award - $50 Every time you paint at one of our social paint events, we will put your name in a drawing for this cash award.
FALL GO PAINT! EVENT SCHEDULE
Saturday, Sept. 24
Youth Quick Paint
11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Presented by Pablo Center’s ARTmobile and sponsored by the Janet Carson Art Education Fund. FREE for young painters aged 18 and under. Registration is on-site in front of Pablo Center. Young painters will have one hour to paint the flora, fauna, and folks of Haymarket Plaza and Phoenix Park. Prizes will be awarded. Participants are welcome to bring their own paint supplies or use ours for free! Art instructors will be present to assist with supplies.
Adult Quick Paint
2 p.m. - 4 p.m.Registered GO Paint! Chippewa Valley painters will have two hours to paint the flora, fauna, and folks of Haymarket Plaza, Phoenix Park, and the surrounding confluence of the Eau Claire and Chippewa Rivers. Cash prizes awarded.
If painting for prizes, please line up your canvas on your easel or set it on a provided table outside of Pablo Center facing the Haymarket Plaza by 4:30 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 26
GO Paint! Eau Claire
9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Let’s paint in Rod and Gun Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on the banks of Half Moon Lake.
Tuesday, Sept. 27
GO Paint! Altoona
4 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Let’s paint in River Prairie Park in Altoona, Wisconsin on the banks of the Eau Claire River.
Wednesday, Sept. 28
GO Paint! Durand
12 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Let’s paint in Lower Chippewa View Park in Durand, Wisconsin on the banks of the Chippewa River.
Thursday, Sept. 29
GO Paint! Leinie Lodge
12 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Join us at the Leinie Lodge for a night of camaraderie and painting! There is an open deck, and access to the rocky shoreline of Duncan Creek. Family and friends are welcome. This event is free and open to the public.
Friday, Sept. 30
Submit Artwork
10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Artists must turn in work for judging to Pablo Center at the Confluence. Awards will be determined by juror and cash prizes will be announced at our Awards Ceremony and Reception.
Meet The Artists Reception & Awards Ceremony
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Join us for an evening in celebration of the artists of GO Paint! Chippewa Valley. All artwork will be for sale at this time.
Meet the GO Paint! Jurors
GO Paint! Chippewa Valley Awards Juror and Featured Artist: James Boyd Brent
James Boyd Brent grew up in the United Kingdom. He studied printmaking at Ruskin University Cambridge and Central St. Martins, London. After finishing school in the U.K., he moved to Minnesota as a Fulbright Scholar in the early 1990s and receiving his MFA in printmaking at the University of Minnesota. Brent currently lives and works in Minneapolis/St Paul and is a Professor for the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. His creative and academic interests include the relationship between creativity and place, and all aspects of painting, drawing, printing, and studio culture. Brent’s studio practice centers on printmaking and painting, and his work has been exhibited and collected internationally.
Artist Statement: I started my art practice in the UK but since moving to the US my work in print, drawing, and painting has been strongly influenced by living in the mid-west and by the histories, stories, cultures, and landscapes here. I teach drawing and surface design (this consists of screen printing, letter press, dyeing, relief printing), creativity, and a graduate course on representation. All the course work I teach is in the context of design studies, and my teaching itself has always been driven by a continuous deep engagement with my own on-going art practice. I’ve also maintained connections with the UK and exhibit my works at the Bankside Gallery in London.
GO Paint! Chippewa Valley Quick Paint Judge and Founding Member: Jean Accola
Jean Accola has been a painter most of her life. In 1980 she moved to rural Western Wisconsin where she lived a creative life with her musician husband and two children.
In 1985 she opened the Accola Gallery in Durand WI, where she continues to work and exhibit. She has studied with many influential artists that helped her establish her skills in watercolor, oil, and acrylic. Jean Accola founded the Fresh Art Tour in 1998 and the GO Paint! Plein Air painting event in 2013 and is now looking forward to years of “just painting”.
HEALTH & SAFETY
There is nothing more important to us than the happiness, health, safety, and well-being of every person who participates in our events. The well-being of partners, patrons, artists, and staff will remain our absolute top priority.
Modifications have been made to GO Paint! Chippewa Valley to accommodate for safer and socially distanced events.
- All participants in this year’s events are encouraged to wear masks and socially distance
- Canvases and painting surfaces will not be stamped prior to painting.
Find our full COVID-19 protocols on our Visitor COVID-19 Guide page.