Plein Air Festival 2023

Visit the gallery of the Plein Air Festival 2023 in Hanchi Snoa (Willemstad, Punda) to admire and buy paintings made during the festival.

Plein Air Curaçao 2023,
organized by Art Foundation Curaçao.
The gallery is located in Hanchi Snoa, opposite Il Barile da Mario.

The opening reception took place Tuesday afternoon. Acting governor of Curaçao, Mrs. Michèle Russel-Capriles, gave the opening speech and opened the festival with a festive toast at the headquarters of the festival.

2023 is the sixth edition of the festival. Plein Air artists from around the world gather in Curaçao for a week of plein air painting sessions and workshops. Local artists also participate or volunteer as buddies or hosts. Participants exhibit the artworks made during the festival at the gallery. The works are for sale, and the exhibition constantly varies as there is a constant supply. 

Plein Air festival does its utmost to offer challenging workshops for the participants. Many are recurrent visitors to the event. Some locations are top-rated and keep coming back, like the possibility of Plein Aerial painting. One workshop offers the opportunity to paint from within the Queen Juliana bridge. Participants of this workshop enter the belly of the bridge and use the windows to get an aerial view of the area.

Another recurrent workshop is the underwater session, Plein Eau. Although popular, it also requires diving skills. It was introduced a few years ago, and it’s notable that with each festival, the paintings improve.

Other popular workshops are Easels-on-the-wave and Paint Curaçao during the Sunset cruise. The festival ends with a competition that takes place in the Koningin Wilhelminapark in Punda between 9 and 2 on Saturday, March 5.

The festival is organized every two years, with a gap in recent years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.