Riverbend Park’s third annual Jan and Dan Laytham Paintout, will host up to 30 juried and professional landscape painters working in oils, acrylics, pastels and watercolor, and competing for $2000 in prizes.

On Saturday, June 7, the park will open at 5 a.m. and competing artists will register their blank canvases at the Visitor Center. They then have until 12:30 p.m. to find a motif within walking distance, paint a picture — or two — and return to the Visitor Center for display and judging of their works. First Place wins $1000, Second Place $750, and Third Place $250, with honorable mentions for color and composition. Prizes are sponsored by Realtors Jan and Dan Laytham of Long and Foster's Great Falls office.

The public is invited to visit the park on the day of the paintout, watch the artists at work, and view the complete show of paintings at the Visitor Center directly after the judging.

All of the paintings will be available for purchase. "It's an education in plein air [outdoor] painting technique," said organizer and park artist-in-residence Jack Warden. "You may see the same scene interpreted by five or six different artists. And amazingly enough, it's free."

The judge this year is internationally recognized artist

Bill Schmidt of Rockville, Md. The show of all paintings will continue at the Visitor Center for two weeks.

Top prize winners from the two previous years were Sara Linda Poly (2006) and Armand Cabrera (2007), both painters and instructors of national standing, collected worldwide.

For more information call Jack Warden at 703-437-9681.