Jacksonville Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, 1445 Millcoe Road, Jacksonville, FL 32225  

News Release

Artists on-site and through additional virtual event create, sell their work to support the nonprofit Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens, local artists

Jacksonville, Fla. (Aug. 18, 2020) – The Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens (JAG) and First Coast Plein Air Painters host ‘A Brush with Nature,’ a plein air painting event, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday Oct. 17 and Sunday Oct. 18 at the arboretum, located at 1440 Millcoe Rd. – and also offering a virtual option for Plein Air Painters and art supporters, as well.

Admission is free, with donations to the arboretum encouraged. Attendees should plan to exercise prudent social distancing during the event.

All works of art created at the event are available for sale – with proceeds benefiting the Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens and the artists.

Visitors can stroll along the trails to watch and interact with participating artists as they work.

Activities include:
• Artists’ demonstrations each day
• Art activities for children from noon to 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
• Entertainment from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday
• Food trucks will be on site from 9 a.m. to close Saturday and Sunday

“We will have more than 20 of the region’s finest landscape artists setting up their easels to capture the essence of the Arboretum’s beautiful settings over the two-day event, with another 20 or more artists taking part in the virtual portion of the event,” said Jacksonville Arboretum & Garden Executive Director Dana Doody.

Event sponsors include Cypress Sponsors bestbet, TLC, Atlantic Self Storage and Jenkins Auto Group, Hickory Sponsors Robb & Pam Mitchell and PRI and Wild Azalea Sponsors Optiv, OE&S and JM Family
For more information about sponsorships, please contact Dana Doody at danad@jacksonvillearboretum.org or call 904-318-4342.

The ‘plein air’ tradition, or ‘en plein air,’ is a French term meaning ‘in the open air.’ Since the mid-19th Century and the advent of portable painting supplies like the paint tube and “box” easels, artists have taken to the outdoors. The plein air movement brought artists out of their studios and into the natural light. It birthed a new type of artist who recorded the everyday scenes of life in the colors and light that nature provided and offered artists a new way to approach their painting process, forcing the stiff formality of the studio to give way to an entirely new concept.

For more information, visit www.jacksonvillearboretum.org/events.

About the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens

The Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens, located at 1445 Millcoe Rd., is open to the public seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. – and offers a free, guided nature walk at 9:30 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month. The arboretum’s mission is to cultivate a unique environment for recreation, education and inspiration for residents and visitors to the Jacksonville area. Located on 120 acres of scenic property, the venue amenities include a paved parking area, an accessible lake loop with gardens and five other maintained trails, benches, boardwalks, scenic overlooks
and picnic tables.

For more information, visit www.jacksonvillearboretum.org, email info@jacksonvillearboretum.org or call 904-318-4342.

Media Contact: Cheryl Munn (904) 631-3555 or CherylMunn@comcast.net.