APALACHICOLA, FL - Once again The Forgotten Coast Plein Air Invitational Paintout has come and gone.

The week was a whirlwind of activity, beginning with the traditional dockside gathering for the artists at WaterStreet Hotel and culminating with the Art in the Afternoon celebration at the old Cotton Warehouse in Apalachicola.

In between, there were exhibitions of plein air paintings at SummerCamp, the Cotton Warehouse and Windmark Beach, plus live demonstrations all across both Gulf and Franklin counties.

At the end of the event, the artists had created over 280 paintings, 85 of which sold for a total of around $60,000. The sales volume was down nearly 30 percent from last year's total sales of $84,000 and the price of individual paintings was slightly down overall. It's a good time to buy art.

Half of the proceeds from the art sales goes to support the Forgotten Coast Cultural Coalition and will help stage next year's Plein Air Paint Out.

This year, organizers worked even harder to encourage the visiting artists to record vistas across the entire region and, if the artists were a little less visible in Port St. Joe and Apalachicola, it may be because they were exploring wetlands at Alligator Point or visiting train yards in northern Gulf County.

A high point of the event was a forum held at the Cotton Warehouse on Friday where Mallory O'Connor, author and professor emeritus of art history at Santa Fe Community College lectured on the relationship of the artist to human and natural environments in Florida.

O'Connor, Faith Eidse, author of "Voices of the Apalachicola," and artist Mitch Kolbe, of Palm Harbor, discussed art and community using a painting he created at last year's Plein Air, "The Oyster Shuckers," as a springboard. The painting depicts the workers at Lynn's Oyster House in Eastpoint.

Kolbe explained the familial relationships of the women pictured and what it was like to paint them. He said the experience brought back memories of a childhood visit to a seafood house on the outer banks of North Carolina.

"One of the women had come from working all night at WalMart in Panama City to work five or six hours shucking," he remembered. "I said I wouldn't take a break if they didn't. If they took one, I didn't see it."

Eidse talked about her conversations with the hardscrabble inhabitants along the banks of the river, from sharecroppers in the north to fishermen in the south.

She talked about the water wars and how the devastating loss of water is bringing an end to the indigenous peoples' way of life.

"We are sitting in a window of culture, history and the environment, and the art created here captures that unique moment," she said.

The Artists' Choice Award for best in show went to newcomer James Richards, of Athens, GA for a painting of weathered buildings along Mexico Beach.

"Receiving this award is a great honor," he said, "This was my first time in the area. I was blown away by the amount of subject matter everywhere you turn. I do a few of these Plein Air events every year and they're always good to the artists but down here, the Southern hospitality really shines."