Wet Paint! En Plein Air at Bellevue House

In celebration of the 31st annual Wet Paint, we’ve partnered with some of the loveliest private gardens and open spaces to offer artists special en plein air painting opportunities!

Bring your art supplies and enjoy a morning of quiet art making among other artists at the beautiful Bellevue Gardens in Newport, followed by a celebratory cool drink in the garden.

Ronald Lee Fleming, founder and President of The Townscape Institute, purchased Bellevue House in 1999. Since that time, restoration and revival have been the words of the day, inside and out. Ogden Codman, Jr., the architect of Bellevue House, was a proponent of the Federal style practiced by Samuel McIntyre of Salem, who was influenced by the 18th century classical revival architectural style of the Adams brothers of Scotland. Codman designed the Bellevue House for his cousin, Martha, in 1910. This distinguished house rises three stories with windows in decreasing heights to give a proportional elegance to the facade. A balustrade is set just above the eave line, and the pitch of the roof is almost flat. An elliptical fanlight surmounts the front door, along with paired sidelights, thus illuminating the entrance vestibule. The double-story portico with fluted Corinthian capitals is a striking expression of the classical ideal.

Highlights of the Bellevue House gardens include meticulously designed allées, follies, and ornamental pools, a lyrical oriental water garden bursting with water lilies, and whimsical monkey sculptures sitting atop deceased Fagus sylvatica trunks. A massive Horsechestnut predates the house built in 1910, and is suspected to be the oldest and largest on Aquidneck Island. An immense Fernleaf Beech creates a natural sheltered space where a moss garden thrives and branches of the “mother” beech have layered into the surrounding earth. Other specimen trees include a magnificent Scots Pine, Hemsley Snowball, massive English Yews, Turkey Oak, and European Ash.

Wet Paint boards will be available for pick up at the Newport Art Museum, or upon arrival at the garden, or you can bring your own base material.

Learn more about Wet Paint!

Space is limited, registration is required.