Thanks to the generous support of Bruce Wiltse and Bill Davenport, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) and Plein Air Easton (PAE) are once again hosting a plein air alumni invitational featuring a new round of previous PAE award winners. This year’s theme “Forever for Everyone” celebrates ESLC’s work conserving and enhancing public parks, preserves, and trails. Artists are already at work, painting spring scenes in four different Eastern Shore counties at places like Bohemia River State Park, the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (CBEC), Oxford Conservation Park, and Friendship Park in East New Market. All of these properties were funded in some way Maryland’s Program Open Space, an essential funding source that was at risk of being zeroed out in Maryland’s most recent General Assembly.
Finished paintings will be on display from July 17-19 during the Avalon Foundation’s 21st PAE festival, the largest and most prestigious juried plein air painting competition in the United States. ESLC and PAE will host a free preview reception and award ceremony on Wednesday July 16, 2025 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center in Easton. This is an excellent opportunity to get a first look at the original artwork, meet the artists, enjoy refreshments, and learn more about ESLC’s conservation work.
More than 10,000 of the 67,000+ acres ESLC has helped to protect are open to the public. In addition to protecting places like CBEC and ESLC’s Jim and Mary B. Lynch Preserve, ESLC has had a long history of purchasing lucrative properties before they can be developed and then transferring the conserved land to towns, counties, and Maryland DNR in order to become community parks, nature preserves, and extensions of public-access Wildlife Management Areas. This work began in 1992 with the transfer of saltmarsh and woodland to expand the Maryland Ornithological Society’s largest sanctuary, Irish Grove. And it continues today with ESLC’s current restoration of Camp Grove Point in Cecil County, which will become part of the Grove Farm WMA, a 1,000-acre expanse of forest, swamps, farms, marshes, and beaches providing open access for hiking, fishing, biking, bird watching, and public hunting. The Maryland Eastern Shore Trail Network (MESTN), founded through ESLC’s organizational stewardship, works to connect all of these places to further increase access, safety, and functionality.
Most of the projects described above were made possible through Program Open Space funding. Though depended upon by every county, town, and city in Maryland, these funds have been consistently threatened due to increasingly desperate budget needs. The people of Maryland cannot afford to lose this funding or these spaces. They are essential for public health, community wellbeing, our agricultural industry, and our natural resources conservation economy which annually contributes more than 38,000 jobs and over 4 billion dollars to Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
“Forever for Everyone puts our public lands—made possible through Program Open Space and the conservation work of ESLC—right in front of people’s eyes,” said ESLC President & CEO, Steve Kline. “These places aren’t just scenic—they’re state investments in public access, community health, and local economies. ESLC is deeply grateful to Plein Air Easton, the Avalon Foundation, our generous funders Bruce Wiltsie and Bill Davenport, and to the exceptionally talented artists who bring our unique landscape to life.”
Marie Nuthall, Plein Air Easton’s Outdoor Event Coordinator commented, “We are deeply grateful for our collaboration with Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, which has brought to life a vision celebrating the beauty of our Eastern Shore landscape. We’re thrilled to welcome back exceptional Plein Air Easton alumni artists for the exhibit from July 16-19 which, like is free and (like the featured properties) open to the public. Come by and peruse the exhibit, enjoy inspiring art, support our talented artists, and celebrate the Eastern Shore landscapes we cherish. Your support enriches our community culture and helps protect the environment we love.”
ESLC is grateful to Cameron Davidson, Dave Harp, Ashley Stubbs, Dylan Taillie, Hillel Brandes, Jill Jasuta, Kirk Marks, Susan Hale, and the many talented photographers who donated their time and talents to document these public parks this spring, enabling some of the artists participating in this year’s invitational to paint from their home locations.
Those interested in attending the July 16th preview can register for free on ESLC’s site: https://www.eslc.org/event/plein-air-reception-forever-for-everyone/. If you have questions about ESLC’s Plein Air preview event, please contact Caitlin Fisher at cfisher@eslc.org.
