Bring your painting supplies and a tasty bagged-lunch to South Delta Plein Air Painters’ weekly meetings at spontaneous outdoor locations throughout Ladner and Tsawwassen.
As the name implies, the group meets and paints exclusively in the outdoors together around South Delta and have been doing so since March of this year.
“Because of COVID, a lot of people were locked up and, you know, not doing much. And by the time March came around, a whole year [later], some people wanted to get out and do things that they could actually do,” explains Delta artist Rod Winning who is the founder of the group.
South Delta Plein Air Painters operates based off of a weekly email announcing where the next painting location will be, and if a painter feels like going that week, they just simply show up.
It’s meant to be low commitment and low stakes where everyone is welcome, regardless of the kind of supplies, methods or abilities you have.
“It’s just interesting to see what everybody else does. That’s a part of the learning experience of artists. As you do your art, you learn from other people and you get other ideas,” said Winning.
He has been plein air painting with the Richmond group, Men in Hats, for a couple years and wanted to create a South Delta-based group.
Each week, there’s a different turnout and a different group of people who join, and so far, there’s about 50 people on the email list.
“I have a lot of fun organizing it and everybody thanks me so much for all my work – and it’s really not that much work. I just tell them where I’m going to be and that’s it ... I’m having fun and everybody else is having fun, and as long as we pick a nice, dry day, we’ll be just fine,” he says.
As the weather gets chillier, and potentially wetter, the group will continue to try meeting on dry days, which may change from their usual Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. schedule.
Currently, the group has some of their paintings on display at the Ladner Pioneer Library, where they’ve sold three paintings so far.
If you’re interested in joining the South Delta Plein Air Painters email list, email Winning at rod.winning@gmail.com, and if you’re interested in their art, check out the hashtag #SDPAP on Facebook and Instagram.
