The latest round of winning paintings from the monthly PleinAir Salon have been announced by judge Darrell Beauchamp, executive director of the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, TX.

Beauchamp awarded place overall to Bill Farnsworth for his landscape, “Looking East.” Bill is a professional artist working in landscape and a plein air devotee. 

“It’s a great privilege to be able to create paintings collectors want to live with while enjoying the great outdoors,” he says on his blog. “In those two hours of painting, your subject slowly reveals itself to you with the changing light, wildlife, and human activity.”

“Had I just took a quick snapshot and moved on I would have missed the story.,” he says. “Sometimes the subjects story is quickly evident while other times it may reveal itself more slowly. Through intense observation we begin to feel empathy for our subject and from that, comes understanding.”

Warren Chang, “Fall Tilling,” Oil, 34×40 in.

Second Place Overall went to Warren Chang for “Fall Tilling,” a 30×34 in. oil depicting contemporary migrant workers in a classical realist style. At first you think you’re looking at a timeless scene in a manner related to Millet or Eastman Johnson. Then you notice the man on his cell phone and the worker behind him wearing a hoodie and it’s not so much 1857 anymore is it?

Thomas Bucci, “Port Clyde Co-Op Cove,” watercolor, 14 x 21 in.

Watercolorist Thomas Bucci snagged the bronze equivalent for an elegant earth-tone depiction of a working wharf with boathouses and lobster traps.

And finally, the Peoples’ Choice award went to Canadian Antoine Khanji for his 30 x 40 in. acrylic painting, “A Day in Autumn.”

Antoine Khanji, “A Day in Autumn,” Acrylic, 30×40 in.

 

Rembrandt in the Spotlight in Ontario 

Rembrandt van Rijn, “Portrait of a Woman with a Lap Dog,” c. 1665. Oil on canvas. Overall: 81.3 × 64.1 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Bequest of Frank P. Wood, 1955. Photo © AGO. 54/30.

On view now at the Art Gallery of Ontario, (Ago), Painted Presence: Rembrandt and His Peers is a rare and remarkable assembly of 17th century Dutch paintings. Featuring 15 intensely observed still-life paintings, detailed interiors, and mesmerizing portraits on loan from The Bader Collection at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the exhibition is co-curated by Adam Harris Levine, AGO Associate Curator of European Art and Suzanne van de Meerendonk, Bader Curator of European Art, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University. 

At the center of the exhibition are seven works by or attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) – the most ever seen together in Toronto in a public museum. The exhibition features two of his most imposing oil on canvas portraits – the AGO’s own Portrait of a Woman with a Lap Dog (c. 1665) and Agnes’s Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, (1658) – alongside three smaller studies of heads, and two paintings attributed to the artist, Head of a Bearded Man: Study for Saint Matthew (1657) and A Scholar by Candlelight (c.1628-1629). Considered to be among the greatest of all 17th century portraitists, Rembrandt and his peers were celebrated in their time for making paintings that seemingly captured reality. 

“Incredible records of what patrons and painters wanted seen and remembered, these exquisite paintings have much to tell us about the hopes and interests of 17th Dutch society – its fashions, its vanities, its trade and its views on aging,” says Adam Harris Levine, AGO Associate Curator of European Art. “It is so special to have so many remarkable paintings in one room and a pleasure to welcome these Bader masterpieces to Toronto. I am excited that visitors will have this opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Dutch painting.” 

Rembrandt van Rijn, “A Scholar by Candlelight,” c. 1629

As the head of a large studio in Amsterdam, Rembrandt trained numerous artists, many of whose work is so good it can be difficult to differentiate the pupil from the master. The exhibition makes clear the tricky and often subjective task of defining what, in fact, makes a Rembrandt. Variously attributed over the years to both Rembrandt and his pupil Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), the AGO’s Portrait of a Woman with a Handkerchief, c. 1644, may still someday be called a Rembrandt, but for the time being remains attributed to the Studio of Rembrandt. On the other hand, the touching Portrait of a Woman, probably Hendrickje Stoffels c. 1653, once believed to be by Rembrandt, is now convincingly attributed to his student Jacobus Leveck (1634 – 1675). 

Painted Presence: Rembrandt and his Peers is on view at the AGO now through February of 2026.