Benicia Plein Air Gallery is a co-op gallery consisting of 12 local artists who show their paintings of Bay Area scenes centering on Benicia and the Carquinez Strait, and expanding throughout Northern California. When you visit the gallery you will recognize many beautiful places in the area. 

Benicia Plein Air Gallery’s artworks capture the local scenes treasured by residents, and give insight to visitors of the local beauty that surrounds them. The artists may turn urban and industrial chaos into abstract expressions, full of color and shapes, or they may choose to paint more representational beauty focusing on our region's spectacular waterways and coastal environments. 

“DaGroup”
From 2003 to 2024, “DaGroup” was a group of plein air painters who painted regularly painted together every Sunday from 2003 to 2024. The group was open to all who had the passion to paint outdoors.

The gallery is a product of the generosity of "DaGroup" local plein air legends, Jerrold Turner and Nikki Basch-Davis. Without their mentoring encouragement, the artists would not have come together to present such a wonderful diversity of paintings. We acknowledge and thank them.

In November 2017, the group opened a cooperative gallery at 307 First Street as a holiday attraction. The gallery, which became known as the Benicia Plein Air Gallery, was intended to be temporary, but the public reaction and positive feedback inspired the painters to continue the venture. They started with 10 members and expanded to 15. Today the Benicia Plein Air Gallery has 12-13 members.

We recognize the history of our organization, and honor and thank “DaGroup,” those painters whose weekly outdoor paint-outs inspired our gallery.

To see photos capturing some of this history of “DaGroup,” visit pleinairlinks.com