OMFA's Bronze Buffalo Festival and Paintout returns Thursday

Oct. 4—Artists from throughout Kentucky and surrounding states will be in Owensboro later this week, painting local scenes and giving residents a glimpse of what goes into creating their works of art.

They'll be participating in the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art's 15th annual Bronze Buffalo Festival and Paintout from Oct. 6-8. The festival is sponsored by Swedish Match North America.

The event is returning for the first time since 2019. It has been canceled the last two years because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're very pleased that it has established a nice tradition for Owensboro; a nice marketing tradition, if you will," Mary Bryan Hood, OMFA executive director, said of the event. "We're pleased to be able to offer (this) to the public."

About 1,500 invitations were mailed out to artists to enter into the en plein air, or outdoors painting, event.

"As a museum, we find it rewarding to participate in this, because it really is a national undertaking," Hood said. "These kinds of exhibitions started probably 10 to 15 years ago across the country. ... There's just a wide variety of these festivals that take place."

Registration is from 7-9 a.m. on Thursday and Friday at the museum (Ninth Street entrance) where canvases and watercolor paper must be stamped to be eligible for exhibitions and awards.

The event allows the public to get a glimpse of artists at work live and in-person.

"That's the unique aspect of it that the public is invited to participate by observation with these artists' paintings throughout the community," Hood said.

Paintings will be entered into a competition and presented in a one-night exhibition at the museum during a gala from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8.

Submissions will be accepted from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday at the museum for judging.

Artists must supply easels for entries and paintings must also be matted or framed.

Purchase and merit awards totaling $3,000 will be presented to the winning entries by the exhibition juror Andrew J. Gianopoulos.

Gianopoulos is the Virginia G. Schroeder Curator of Art at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science and has held positions in curatorial studies and research at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Wetzel County Museum in New Martinsville, West Virginia, and the Monroe County History Center in Bloomington, Indiana.

Hood said the festival provides an incentive for artists.

"There's so many sales made from this event," she said. "At least half a dozen pieces, over and above the award winners, are sold each time."

The buffalo theme for the festival is inspired by two "heroic-sized" bronze buffalo that were commissioned by the museum to honor the buffalo trace that visually documents the historical development of Owensboro from when present-day Frederica Street was used as a buffalo trail created by "centuries of thundering buffalo as they made their way from salt licks" to the Ohio River to drink the water.

The trace was also used by early settlers that led them to the banks of the river, eventually leading to the settlement of Yellowbanks, the predecessor of Owensboro.

Artists may enter the paintout by visiting the museum's website for registration information at omfa.us. Entry fee is $30.

The gala is open to the public by reservation and admission is $50 per person. Those who are part of Friends of the OMFA Foundation will receive a

$10 discount.

The gala will include a community painting event, where both artists and guests will have an opportunity to create a painting of a major site in Owensboro. Participants will be eligible to win premium spirits from local distilleries that have been donated to the museum.

Bluegrass band King's Highway will provide entertainment.

For reservations, email the museum at info@omfa.us or call 270-685-3181.

Proceeds from the gala will benefit the museum's continuing education and outreach programs for the community and region.