PARK Coworking in downtown Boulder is serving as an unlikely art gallery, displaying more than 200 original works made by 50 Colorado artists in Boulder County during Open Studios’ six-day Plein Air Community Event. The paintings, created across Boulder County between May 31 and June 5, are now on view and for sale through July.
The event celebrates a centuries-old artistic tradition, but it also addresses a more immediate challenge for Boulder artists: finding places to exhibit their work.
Plein air, French for “open air,” refers to the practice of making art outdoors. Historically associated with the Impressionist movement, plein air has seen a resurgence in recent decades, largely through competitive festivals and juried exhibitions.
Artist Lindsay Jane Ternes helped launch Boulder’s first Open Studios Plein Air Festival in 2017 after participating in similar events around the West.
“I was going to all these plein air competitions in places like Aspen and Bozeman, and I thought, we should have one in Boulder,” she said.
Open Studios has hosted a version of the event nearly every year since. In 2024 and 2025, the organization invited artists from across the country to apply, with jurors selecting 20 participants. This year, organizers shifted the focus closer to home, opening registration first to Open Studios members and then to artists across Colorado.
“The festival format is a big effort to bring in top artists from around the country,” said Mary Horrocks, executive director of Open Studios.
The event alternates between national and Colorado-only formats. Restricting participation to Colorado artists creates opportunities for emerging artists and first-time participants to build exhibition experience and connect with collectors.
“It’s a huge growth opportunity,” Ternes said. “You paint like crazy.”
Artists spent six days creating work throughout Boulder County, including mandatory paint-outs at Chautauqua and the Boulder County Farmers Market. Some participants completed multiple paintings each day. While several artists produced as many as a dozen pieces during the event, each was limited to displaying five works in the exhibition.
“You have to do as many as you can before it ends,” said artist Jonathan Machen.
The exhibition also reflects a longstanding challenge for Boulder’s arts community: finding places to show work.
“The paucity of galleries in Boulder is one of the prime reasons that Gary Zeff founded Open Studios,” Horrocks said.
Open Studios began with a studio tour in 1995. The organization also operates a small gallery space in Boulder Junction that doubles as a workshop space in the summertime. But organizers have increasingly looked beyond traditional gallery settings to accommodate larger exhibitions.
That search led to a partnership with PARK Coworking in 2025.
“After hitting so many dead ends trying to locate a space for the studio tour exhibit, PARK founder Aaron Grant immediately said yes,” Horrocks said.
The partnership has benefited both organizations. PARK members gain rotating exhibitions of original artwork, while Open Studios gains access to prominent downtown exhibition space.
“The space itself is the best advertisement for us,” Grant said. “Plus, on weekends the building would otherwise often go unused.”
The exhibition arrives as arts organizations across Boulder County work to raise the profile of local artists ahead of the Sundance Film Festival’s arrival in Boulder next year.
“We’ve got the third-highest concentration of artists to general population of any city in the country,” Horrocks said. “We are ahead of Santa Fe on that. But Santa Fe has a lot of galleries and a lot of art activity.”
Without that level of commercial art infrastructure, Boulder’s arts scene can be overshadowed by the region’s reputation for outdoor recreation.
For many participants, however, plein air painting bridges those worlds.
“There’s a great meld with the Boulder culture of hiking and biking,” said Peg Connery-Boyd, a longtime member of Open Studios. “I’ve had people on their bikes stop and talk to me. It shows that painting is another way to enjoy our beautiful outdoors.”
The practice requires artists to work quickly and adapt to changing conditions. Longmont painter Jordan Wolfson said an artist residency in Ireland taught him how to paint in the rain.
“You really just have to go for it,” he said. “Some people think of this as a genteel activity, but it can be pretty rugged.”
The spontaneity is part of the appeal.
“It’s messy, it’s low-pressure, and it’s fast,” said painter Claire Huffine. “You capture those things that you can’t capture with a photograph.”
The exhibition was juried by Carol Jenkins and her daughter, Greta Balzer, owners of the Glass Tipi Gallery in Ward. Jenkins, a painter herself, helped repopularize plein air painting in the 1970s. Open Studios awarded prizes for Best in Show, first through third place and several category-specific honors, including Best Landscape, Best Nocturne, Best Flatirons View and Best Cityscape.
While the prizes can provide a career boost, participants described the atmosphere as collaborative rather than competitive.
“My goal is always to make my best work,” said Kathleen Lanzoni, a watercolor artist. “If you win, it’s just a bonus.”
Lanzoni took home the ribbon for Best Landscape.
All artwork in the exhibition is framed, available for purchase and ready to take home. Prices range from $25 to $2,995.
“Art collectorship is extremely accessible,” Horrocks said. “It’s a big plus, too, to know that it was made by a Colorado artist.”
The exhibition is open to the public from noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays in June and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through July. PARK Coworking is located at 2040 14th Street in Boulder.
