Mendocino Art Center brings art to the headlands

Karen Schmidt from Seattle, Wash., works on her painting during the Mendocino Open Paint Out (MOPO) in Mendocino, Calif., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Susan Nash via Bay City News)

MENDOCINO CO., 9/16/24 – “Five days of concentrated painting” is what brought Karen Schmidt of Seattle to Mendocino this week. The Mendocino Art Center’s Open Paint Out started Monday and will continue through Saturday.

Founded by local artists John Hewitt and Dale Moyer in 2013, the Open Paint Out is a plein air festival – a style of outdoor landscape painting popularized in the 19^th century by the French impressionists. This year nearly 50 professional and amateur artists signed up to spend the week trying to capture the light along the Mendocino Coast. Finished works, some of it still wet, are displayed in the Art Center’s galleries each evening.