Norfolk

Paint Out‘s plein air art events and exhibitions in Norfolk, UK, including Great Yarmouth, Holt, Ludham, Wells-next-the-Sea and other North Norfolk coastal towns, Norfolk Broads, seaports, market towns, country houses and gardens. We’ve stretched far and wide across the coast from Hunstanton to Wells and Mundesley down to Happisburgh, Waxham, Horsey and Winterton. Inland, we’ve explored Gooderstone Water Gardens, Gunton Park, Blickling Hall, Wolterton Park, Norwich and Whitlingham. Visit the online gallery of the events (2020, 2021, 2022). 

If you are a participating artist use the Logging, Location and Logistics pages for Event information and the password previously sent you (contact info@paintout.org or 07432 608015 if you have not received this).

Paint Out Norfolk, 13-22 July 2023

Our outdoor painting programme builds upon 9 years of plein air art events across of Norfolk and Norwich with an open-air exhibition that sees dozens of artwork sales. We expect to welcome over 100 artists from UK, Europe & USA, do sign up early to join the UK’s most innovative plein air art event – the July 2023 event is open for entries with over 100 artists entering via the early bird pricing (save up to £150). Come and capture the height of summer in county, city, coast and countryside locations including Norwich, Norfolk seaside, inland Broads, market towns, and historic houses, gardens and parks, allotments and cemeteries, and forays into Constable country in Suffolk!

Paint Out Norfolk 2023   Plein Air Painting Workshops & Demos   Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest   

Paint Out Norfolk PV, Awards & Exhibition, July 2023

You can be among the first to see the judging, awards, prizes and scoop up some amazing paintings. 

Paint Out Norwich 2022 & Norfolk 2023 Awards & Exhibition   Paint Out Norfolk 2022 Gallery 

Past Events

Paint Out Norwich Nocturnes27-29 October 2022

This autumn, we are revisiting Norwich and its contrasting medieval streets and modern shops with a specific emphasis on a Nocturne painting festival running Thursday evening through to a Saturday Private View and Sunday exhibition in Cathedral Close, Tombland.

Paint Out has showcased Nocturne painting since we began in 2014. This year’s October event will be primarily focused on the plein air skill of painting as the sun disappears and evening lights appear, perhaps reflecting off damp cobbles the neon glows of shops and yellowed street lamps.

Paint Out Norwich Nocturnes 2022 Gallery 

Paint Out Norfolk, 15-24 July 2022

8-day tour of Norfolk saw some 75 artists attending, despite the cost of living crisis and hottest weather on record. Check out the painting locations Google map here. View the gallery of some of the finished artworks and Exhibition Catalogue. Well over 600 paintings were created and judged by: art critic and curator Hugh PilkingtonDr Sally Anne Huxtable (National Trust Chief Curator) and artist Michael Richardson.

Paint Out Norwich Exhibition Catalogue   Paint Out Norfolk 2022 Gallery    

Paint Out Ludham26 June 2022

In June we painted 16 open gardens and a 14th-century church based in the beautiful Ludham, on the Norfolk Broads. Home to Edward Seago and Kieron Williamson, this event will also see classic cars, heritage boats, and the village life of a summer festival celebration in full swing.

Paint Out Ludham 2022 Gallery 

Paint Out Norfolk Churches** postponed ** 2022

This year sees two warm-up events ahead of July’s art festival and competition. In May we will paint a historic 1000-year-old church in order to help fund its preservation and also paint the sweeping views to the East Coast, lakes and arboretum belonging to James Colman nearby.

Paint Out Norfolk Churches 2022   Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest   

Paint Out Norfolk16-24 July 2021

An 8-day tour of Norfolk and Norwich, coast and countryside which saw over 70 artists participate and paint from Hunstanton to Winterton, Gooderstone Water Gardens to Gunton Park, and across Norwich and the Norfolk Broads.

Judges included artists Maggi Hambling and Rob Adams, and curator/art historian Giorgia Bottinelli.

(See our 2020 Covid update for how we handled safety with a socially distant safe practice event and exhibition)

Paint Out Norfolk Galleries   Paint Out Norfolk 2020 Gallery  

Paint Out Norfolk16-23 July 2020

Visit the online gallery of the event attended by 50 artists over 8 days creating over 400 paintings. See the locations painting Google map here.

Paint Out Norfolk 2020 Gallery  

Paint Out Norfolk Gardens, May-Oct 2019

Throughout the year we will also be exploring Norfolk’s great gardens through one-day events including:

Paint Out Norwich, 14-15 Oct 2019

This year, Paint Out Norwich will provide a finale paintout in the Plantation Garden to the Paint Out Norfolk Gardens series which will have taken place May-October, through the year’s changing seasons, light, and colour. We are now painting Norwich Bishop’s Garden (14 Oct) as well as Plantation Garden (15 Oct) and hope to have sessions exploring other urban parks and gardens in and around Norwich. 

Paint Out Holt, 19-20 July 2019

The Holt Festival (21-27 July), now in its eleventh year, has invited Paint Out to open this year’s Festival with a two-day Paint Out and Private View (19-20 July) around the charming North Norfolk town. Robert Upstone a Tate curator will be judging at Paint Out Holt.

Home to 500-year-old Gresham’s School (alumni include WH Auden, Olivia Colman, Benjamin Britten, James Dyson, and the artist Ben Nicholson), this two-session Paint Out will be backed up by a ten-day exhibition in Picturecraft of Holt, a gallery and Art material supplier with the winners exhibiting alongside the now well established Holt Art Prize

Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest   Paint Out Holt 2019 Gallery

Paint Out Norfolk, 1-7 July 2019

Paint Out Norfolk takes place in conjunction with The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts 1-7 July (painting days 1st-5th, PV 5th, Exhibition 6th-7th) based around the Sainsbury Centre/UEA campus site and painting further afield including Wells-next-the-Sea, the Broads, and Houghton Hall park. 

Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest   Paint Out Norfolk 2019 Gallery 

Paint Out Norwich, 13-17 Oct 2018

Premier plein air juried art competition since 2014, workshops and talks, public paint out, private view & awards, Hostry exhibition – more information

Paint Out Wells-next-the-Sea, 8 Sep 2018

North Norfolk coast plein air painting competition. Since 2015 this event has seen workshops, demos, beach public paint outs at sunrise, Buttlands exhibition, day trips to neighbouring towns such as Blakeney, Burnham Market, Brancaster Staithe etcApply here or more information about our long-running Wells events.

Paint Out Great Yarmouth, 1 Sep 2018

A new one-day event is taking place – Paint Out Great Yarmouth on 1 September, from Seaside to Quayside, in collaboration with Norfolk Museums Service and particularly the Time and Tide Museum’s event â€˜Drawn to the Coast: Turner, Constable, Cotman‘ which explores the identity of Great Yarmouth and its surrounding landscape through the artwork it has inspired. Apply here.

Paint Out at the RNS 28-29 June 2017

Paint Out 2017 featured a select group of invited artists painting the UK’s largest two-day agricultural fair – the Royal Norfolk Show. With up to 100,000 visitors it is the premier event of its kind.

Public Paint Outs & other One-Day Paint Outs

More of these to follow…

Paint Out Great Yarmouth – 1-9 Sept 2018

Yarmouth Jetty John Crome 1768-1821 Bequeathed by Miss Harriet Higginson 1917, Tate

Seaside to Quayside

Paint Out Great Yarmouth takes place on 1 September 2018, on the East Norfolk coast, during ‘Drawn to the Coast: Turner, Constable, Cotman‘ which explores the identity of Great Yarmouth and its surrounding landscape through the art work it has inspired. J.M.W Turner and John Constable, Norwich School of painters such as Joseph Stannard, John Sell Cotman and John Crome were all drawn to paint here. Now you can too!

Our one day, two sessions, open-air art event celebrates the practice of en plein air painting and ends with a PV of the artworks created on the day, and week-long exhibition.

Jetty, Great Yarmouth, G.S.Stevenson
Jetty, Great Yarmouth, G.S. Stevenson

Paint Out is thrilled to be working with the Norfolk Museums Service and particularly the Time and Tide Museum to bring artists the opportunity to paint some scenes from Great Yarmouth for this one day event and display of them in a museum setting for a week, at the same time as such renowned painters Turner, Constable and Cotman are being exhibited to the general public.

Paint Out Great Yarmouth gives artists the chance to retrace the steps of Turner, Constable and Cotman, taking inspiration from the artworks on display in the exhibition, allowing them to create their own contemporary scenes of Great Yarmouth life which will be displayed in the museum during the final week of the ‘Drawn to the Coast’ exhibition run.

Drawn to the Coast: Turner, Constable, Cotman. Exhibition open at the Time and Tide Museum until Sunday 9th September including works from the Paint Out Great Yarmouth event.

Throughout the 19th century Great Yarmouth attracted artists to its shores. Its prosperity as a port meant that wealthy merchants collected and commissioned artworks. Some became patrons to artists and helped them to establish national reputations. This was also a time when the town’s popularity as a leisure resort was growing and the wealthier tourists provided additional sources of income for artists. These circumstances helped to support the development of a thriving artistic scene in Great Yarmouth.

Firing Rockets at Great Yarmouth, Possibly Related to 'Life-Boat and Manby Apparatus Going Off' c.1831 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851 Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/D35977
Firing Rockets at Great Yarmouth, Possibly Related to ‘Life-Boat and Manby Apparatus Going Off’ c.1831 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851 Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/D35977

Artists ‘drawn to this coast’ include three of the UK’s most important landscape artists. JMW Turner (1775-1851), John Constable (1776-1837) and John Sell Cotman (1782-1842). This exhibition, co-curated by members of the Great Yarmouth community, explores some of the most dramatic local works created by these artists. It includes significant loans of their work from major national lenders including two loaned works by J.M.W Turner from Tate – a watercolour of Great Yarmouth, and, on display in the county for the first time since he sketched in it, his Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex sketchbook.

Join our mailing list to register interest in future Paint Out events and a return to Great Yarmouth and other East Anglian locations if you can’t make this one.

Paint Out Great Yarmouth   Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest

Paint Out Great Yarmouth entry form

Paint Out Great Yarmouth 2018 Submissions
Your first name
Your family/surname
Transport options - make sure to include your hometown if offering/requesting a car share
Required if under 35, Optional if not!
Your website or a site where your work is displayed, include the http://
Your @Twitter profile name (if you have one)
Artist's or personal facebook page where you share your art, include the http://
Your Instagram profile name (if you have one)
Image size: Horizontal images should have a width of 1000-1600 pixels, and vertical images should have a height of 800-1200 pixels or so. Resolution no greater than 300 dpi, max image size suggested 1-2MB as 10MB is the total max for all images via form submission. You can use https://bulkresizephotos.com/ to edit your photo sizes (use pro settings to adjust to exact dimensions) Format: Images can be in a .jpg, or png format. File size limitation: Save your images with as little compression as possible (i.e. choose the best quality) while maintaining a file size less than 2 MB for each image. File name: Please use the surname, title of the work, and year completed. Example: 'Artist, The Blue Boat, 2015, Media, Size etc'
Please supply as PDF or Word doc a minimum 250 word description of your artistic style, experience, any notable awards or achievements, and reason for wanting to take part.
Please tick here to acknowledge that you understand PaintOut's Rules & Regulations and agree to abide by them. (In brief: 50% event/25% online commission structure, keeping to competition maximum painting times, strictly plein air painting, non-framing preferred, max 16"/40cm canvas, appearance in photos etc)

Apply to Paint Out Plein Air Art Events

Artists silhouetted at Paint Out Wells 2015 sunrise. Photo by Katy Jon Went

Paint Out 2023 Plein Air Art Competitions

ENTER Paint Out Norfolk, July 2023   Paint Out Register interest   

Paint Out Norfolk, July 2023

Artist Kate Gabriel painting Winterton allotments, Paint Out Norfolk 2020
Artist Kate Gabriel painting Winterton-on-Sea allotments during Paint Out Norfolk 

Our outdoor painting programme builds upon 9 years of plein air art events across of Norfolk and Norwich with an open-air exhibition that sees dozens of artwork sales. We expect to welcome over 100 artists from UK, Europe & USA, do sign up early to join the UK’s most innovative plein air art event – the July 2023 event is now open for entries with early bird pricing (save up to £150). Come and capture the height of summer in city, coast and countryside locations including Norwich, Norfolk seaside, inland Broads, market towns, and historic houses, gardens and parks, allotments and cemeteries!

Paint Out Norfolk 2023 Application  

 

Past Events

Paint Out Events History 

Paint Out Norfolk, 15-24 July 2022

Our third 8 days+ summer format saw 80+ artists brave the hottest heatwave in UK history. Artists painted from the North Coast and its creeks to the sublime serenity of Gooderstone Water Gardens, the National Trust’s Blickling Hall to Wolterton Hall and Park, and across Norwich and the Norfolk Broads. 

Judges included Dr Sally Anne Huxtable, Michael Richardson, and Hugh Pilkington.

Paint Out Norfolk 2022 Gallery 

Paint Out Norwich, 15-17 October 2021

We returned to the autumn and Norwich for a Hostry Festival anniversary special and exhibition in the Maddermarket Theatre.

Paint Out Norwich 2021 Gallery 

Paint Out Norfolk, 16-23 July 2021

We continued the new 1-8 days+ summer format with 70 artists and double the exhibition capacity. Artists painted from Hunstanton to Winterton, Gooderstone Water Gardens to Gunton Park, and across Norwich and the Norfolk Broads. 

Judges included artists Maggi Hambling and Rob Adams, and curator/art historian Giorgia Bottinelli.

Paint Out Norfolk 2021 Gallery 

Paint Out Norfolk, 16-23 July 2020

Moving our premier event to the summer allows us to spend up to 8 days in Norwich and Norfolk, around city, coast and countryside, including seaside and market towns as well as the iconic historic medieval city of Norwich itself.

Paint Out Norfolk 2020 Gallery 

Paint Out Norwich Midwinter, 18 Dec 2019

Following 2018’s midwinter free event we returned to Norwich Market, Jarrolds, Haymarket and the surrounding area to paint the seasonal scenes. Some 20 artists participated, painting early for the light as well as late for the Christmas lights.

Paint Out Norfolk Gardens, May-Oct 2019

Throughout 2019 we explored Norfolk’s great gardens with a succession of one-day events at:

Paint Out Gardens 2019 Gallery

Paint Out Holt, 19-20 July 2019

The Holt Festival (21-27 July), now in its eleventh year, invited Paint Out to open this year’s Festival with a two-day Paint Out and Private View (19-20 July) around the charming North Norfolk town. Robert Upstone a Tate curator judged the event at Paint Out Holt as well as Charlotte Crawley (Art Historian, former EAAF).

Home to 500-year-old Gresham’s School (alumni include WH Auden, Olivia Colman, Benjamin Britten, James Dyson, and the artist Ben Nicholson), this two-session Paint Out will be backed up by a ten-day exhibition in Picturecraft of Holt, a gallery and Art material supplier with the winners exhibiting alongside the now well established Holt Art Prize

Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest   Paint Out Holt 2019 Gallery

Paint Out Norfolk, 1-7 July 2019

Paint Out Norfolk took place in conjunction with The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts 1-7 July (painting days 1st-5th, PV 5th, Exhibition 6th-7th) based around the Sainsbury Centre/UEA campus site and painting further afield including Wells-next-the-Sea, the Broads, and Houghton Hall park. 

Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest   Paint Out Norfolk 2019 Gallery 

Paint Out Cambridge, 13-17 May 2019

The inaugural Paint Out Cambridge took place 13-17 May (painting 13-15th, PV 16th, exhibition till 17th) in collaboration with Cheffins Fine Art. Iconic views, Cambridge colleges, Kings College Chapel, the River Cam – its punts and bridges, the Market, may all feature in our first plein air Cambridge art event.

Join Our Mailing List   Paint Out Register interest   Paint Out Cambridge 2019 Gallery 

 

What is Paint Out & Plein Air?

Paint Out™ is a multi-faceted event aiming to redefine en plein air art practice. Our core event is the premier and only fully juried en plein air competition in the United Kingdom, celebrating the talents of national and international artists before a wide and growing audience in the heart of medieval and iconic Norwich and at satellite locations. Our events aim to push the experience of painting en plein air and its challenges in all weather conditions, times of day and light, and varied locations and points of view. 

Plein Air â€“ Art works carried out in the open air – chiefly with reference to painting. The Paint Out competitions, however, accept any 2-dimensional media or mixed-media applied to a canvas/board/paper embracing drawing, pastels, oils, watercolour, and even screen-printing. Innovation and originality are encouraged alongside traditional art forms.

History of the Paint Out Competition

Paint Out Norwich launched in 2014 during the city’s October Hostry Festival, that itself began in 2011. Some 30 artists participated in the first Norwich event, 35-45 in subsequent events. Read about the prizewinners from Paint Out Norwich 2014, Norwich 2015, Norwich 2016Paint Out Norwich 2017 and Paint Out Norwich 2018. Paint Out events also hit the North Norfolk coast of Wells-next-the-Sea, Blakeney, Brancaster Staithe, and Burnham Market, in 2015-2018 and Great Yarmouth in 2018. See some of the past winners: Paint Out Wells 2016, 2017, 2018. Paint Out Norfolk 2020-23 saw us move the main event to the summer months and now attracts 70-100 artists.