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festivals · Friday 17 July 2026 · 10:00 AM 
Arklow Plein Air Festival
At Arklow Arts Centre · 87 Lower Main Street, Y14 A256, Arklow, Co. Wicklow
At Arklow Arts Centre · 87 Lower Main Street, Y14 A256, Arklow, Co. Wicklow
If you paint outdoors - or have ever wanted to watch artists work in the open air - the Arklow Plein Air Festival is three days well spent. Thirty-six selected painters fan out across the town each morning, setting up easels at harbours, ruins, and riverbanks, producing finished work under whatever sky Wicklow decides to offer. The festival runs alongside the Arklow Sea Breeze Festival, so the town has extra life while it is on. It suits practising artists who want a structured event with real prize money and a public exhibition at the end, and equally suits visitors who enjoy watching work made in the landscape.
Each day opens with artists heading out to up to three painting locations. The confirmed sites include the Riverwalk, Arklow Harbour, Glenart Castle, The Pyramid, the grounds of Shelton Abbey, and Arklow Rock. These are not generic backdrops: Shelton Abbey is a Gothic Revival estate with exceptional beech and chestnut woodland, while Arklow Rock rises 130 metres above the coast with views across the Irish Sea. Artists finish pieces on location rather than from photographs in a studio.
Evening social events run across all three days. The festival closes Sunday 19 July with an exhibition opening at Arklow Arts Centre (4 - 6 PM); the show then runs through 31 August. Prizes are €500 (first), €300 (second), and €200 (third), plus a Shelton Abbey Prize. Works sell from €200 with a 30% commission to the centre. The €40 participation fee covers the full programme.
Arklow sits on the N11/M11 corridor, about an hour south of Dublin by car. From the motorway, follow signs into the town centre - the Arts Centre is on Lower Main Street, which runs through the middle of town and is easy to find on foot once you are parked. Street parking is available in the town centre; the Nineteen Arches Bridge end of town has quieter side streets if the main strip is full.
By public transport, Bus Eireann and Aircoach services run between Dublin and Arklow regularly, with the town centre a short walk from the stop.
The Riverwalk follows the Avoca upstream from the harbour, and the Maritime Museum on the quay covers the town’s seafaring past. There is more to see in Arklow and across Co. Wicklow.
Heading to Arklow Arts Centre in Arklow? Wicklow has plenty more to see. Read the Arklow area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.