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Check this page frequently for the most up-to-date information about The Chestnuts and upcoming happenings. Questions, ideas or recommendations regarding future events? Email Suzannah Green, here.

Chestnut’s “Events” Descriptions

There are several categories of events in our annual cycle. Most of these are available to active members only. The one exception open to the “Community” are the Chestnut Artist Workshop Series (CAWS), (formerly known as Paint Your Heart Out – PYHO). Sign-up for CAWs is offered in advance to members and limitations on the number of participants usually result in very few slots being open after the membership-registration window.

Community-Participation Event

  1. Chestnut Artist Workshop Series (CAWS) – These are typically outdoor painting demonstrations whereby Chestnut-member artists will volunteer their time to paint at a pre-arranged location where people who have pre-registered will join them to observe or occasionally to paint themselves to improve their Plein Air techniques. On occasion, sessions will center around sharing best practices among participants on subjects pertaining to the preparation and marketing of artwork.

Non-Chestnut members from the community may register and pay on our website but do not qualify for the significant member discount. Sign-up is offered in advance to members and limitations on the number of participants results in very few slots being open after the membership-registration window. We try to arrange a series of spring and fall PAWs that are announced roughly 6-weeks in advance for online registration.

Chestnut-Member Events

  1. Major Art Shows/Sales – In general, we try to schedule a spring and fall event of this type that teams us with a local nonprofit, often parks, that have the following of an affiliated “Friends” group. We typically try to stage these exhibitions in a facility owned by the partnering organization to avoid having rental expenses undercut the proceeds.

Our practice has been to donate 45% of the overall sales to support the partnering nonprofit. We then split the remaining amount with our artists getting 45% for their paintings and 10% goes into the Chestnut Group’s coffers towards offsetting our general operational expenses.

  1. “Paint Outs” – Members get together for outings to paint for our art shows, to practice, and to learn and experience community among other artists. On occasion, more experienced members will volunteer in advance to stage a painting “demo” or to circulate to offer suggestions during such field sessions. These activities bring opportunities to increase the participation of members on any skill level. It can start with simply seeing the types of equipment and set up to paint outdoors or bringing a chair to watch other painters translate their ideas into two dimensions.

These are free to members and are also intended to encourage more of our painters to participate in instructing (it’s how we learn the most) while building networks to help get names and faces together. There’s no substitute for connecting into this rich community of painters than through active participation.

  1. Open Critiques of Your Artwork – The feedback from a membership survey indicated there is interest in offering occasional opportunities to bring a few of your paintings to a session where member artists offer “critiques” of each other’s works. We hope to try to stage some of these events. The response has been positive in the past.
  2. “Pop-Ups” and “Wet-paint” events – These gatherings occur when a specific venue or organization we have sponsored events with invites us to paint live, on-site during a defined window of time. These opportunities are posted in advance. The paintings that result are often offered for sale at the end of the day or displayed as a body of work noted as being from such an art event.