Our Founding Members

Dave Bates painting along the coast of California

Bruce Peil in Italy

Other Contributing Members

Board of Directors:
     Kaye Franklin
     Bob Rohm
     Rusty Jones
     John Cook
     Fran Ellisor
     Beverly Boren
          and of course, Bruce Peil and Dave Bates

Paintout Coordinator
     LaNell Arndt

Newsletter Editor
     Peggy Kingsbury

Website Author
     Fran Ellisor

The Outdoor Painters Society was formed in 1996 by two painters, David Moreland Bates and Bruce Peil. The idea was to create opportunities and incentive for artists of like mind to come together and paint en plein air.  Starting with eight members the group grew rapidly, but was limited to 100 members until 2005. At that time the membership was opened and the group continues to grow.

There are three levels of membership:   Artist, Signature and Master Signature.  New members enter as Artists.  Signature and Master Signature memberships are by invitation of the board.

Most of our members hail from Texas, but some are from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado as well. We gather about ten times each year to paint together for anywhere from a day to a week. We've painted in several locations around Texas such as Rockport, Galveston, the Hill Country, various botanical gardens and arboretums -- even indoors during the especially hot month of August or the cold month of February. In the fall we usually travel to the mountains of New Mexico or Colorado.

We produce a newsletter for the membership, one per outing, called Plein Talk that informs about upcoming outings, exhibitions to see, competitions to enter, recent accomplishments of members, etc. It also helps those who can't make many outings feel a part of the group.

Occasionally we'll arrange for a well-known artist to provide a demonstration for us at one of our get-togethers. And we also have a lending library of art instruction videos by major artists for our members' education and enjoyment.

If you are interested in membership in the OPS, you can go to the contact page  and click on the link for a membership application.  If you live in an area that will make participation difficult, you may want to start you own group.  If so, you can find some helpful hints here.

Hope to see you "out there" sometime soon.

Member Volunteers

     And all the members who contribute their time and energy to make our shows and paintouts such a great success.  Their contributions are graciously given and our Board thanks and acknowleges their generosity.

             Outdoor Painters Society™
             All images on this site are copyrighted

                 Website designed by Fran Ellisor & Dave Bates