International Plein Air Festival Returns to Kühlungsborn

The Kühlungsborn International Plein Air Festival welcomes forty painters from twelve countries to the Baltic resort town this August. For ten days, artists set up easels along the beach promenade, in harbour cafés, and among the pine forests of the coastal hinterland, creating works that will be exhibited and sold in a final weekend exhibition.

Painting in Public

What distinguishes plein air festivals from conventional exhibitions is transparency. Visitors can watch artists work, ask questions about technique and composition, and see paintings develop from first marks to finished works over the course of several days. For many visitors, this direct encounter with the creative process is more engaging than any gallery visit.

This Year's Theme

The 2026 edition adopts the theme "Horizons," reflecting both the literal horizon of the Baltic seascape and broader questions about artistic perspective in an age of digital image-making. Invited artists include painters working in traditions from Russian realism to American impressionism, creating an informal comparative exhibition of global landscape painting traditions focused on a single stretch of coastline.

Visiting

Kühlungsborn is accessible by the historic Molli narrow-gauge railway from Bad Doberan, itself connected to Rostock by regular rail service. The festival's final exhibition and sale takes place on the last weekend of August in the Kühlungsborn concert hall. Previous editions have attracted over 3,000 visitors to the closing weekend alone.