Yavapai College Art in the Pines: 7th Annual Plein Air Festival – Stefan R. Sanford, MFA and Jill Keller, PhD

Prescott Yavapai College hosted its 7^th Annual Plein Air Festival for 2026 this past August weekend. Plein Air art is painting which takes place outdoors in nature. This is a wonderful way to capture the true colors of the day and the changing light playing on the landscape as one creates and paints what they see in real time.

Photo: Raven’s work area

Raven Boer shared her love for Plein Air where she paints in oil and is inspired by Impressionism and American Realism. She enjoys how light sources allow an artist to focus and still have solitary scenes. Raven is a student artist at Yavapai College and attends the Clarksdale YC Campus. One of her inspirations is British Artist and Painter, Edward Samuel Harper. Harper was known for his paintings and taught drawing and painting at Birmingham School of Art in England.

Neil Orlowski has taught painting privately in the Prescott area as well as conducting classes at the Artist Guild. He enjoys painting with oils, sharing he ‘feels his art is loosely detailed painting.’ Watching Neil paint in the Richard Marcusen Sculpture Garden at the YC Prescott Campus was relaxing and lovely as the light filtered through the trees.

Kristine Dutton moved to Prescott and fell in love with Plein Air painting. She describes her work as ‘impressionistic, feeling the gracefulness of the trees.’ Barbara Mulleneaux refers to her work as impressionism – “what I see and feel.” Hope Ricciardi paints in an impressionistic realistic style. Hope Ricciardi currently is affiliated with the Sedona Artist Market & Gallery, in Sedona, Arizona.

The Richard Marcusen Sculpture Garden is a hidden gem in the Prescott, Arizona environment. The beauty and peaceful solitude which exudes from this garden is not only an environment for Plein Air artists, but a refuge tucked away in beautiful Prescott. Richard Marcusen helped facilitate more than 40,000 hours of volunteer labor and raised an estimated $1,163,864 dollars and gifts to build the YC Sculpture Garden (YC, 2026).

Be sure to visit the Garden as it is a beautiful and inspirational environment where one has a feeling of ‘being on vacation’ in our own backyard. A wonderful secret garden just to the west and north of the Performing Arts Center.

Enjoy!

Reference

Richard Marcusen Sculpture Garden. Yavapai College Website.

https://printing.yc.edu/v6/yavapai-college-foundation/richard.html