Paint It! Ellicott City‘s 2025 Juror is Crystal Moll.

For over 30 years, Crystal Moll has painted on the East Coast of the USA. For half that time, she has run the Crystal Moll Gallery, which hosts other artists’ works in addition to offering custom framing.

Based in beautiful Baltimore, Maryland, Moll offers a distinct selection of plein air art paintings, limited edition signed prints, tiles, and posters of Baltimore’s urban landscape.

Moll has embraced her adopted home of Baltimore, where she paints strictly on location and explores cityscapes as her subject. She works hard to produce these on an ongoing basis, while sticking to attention to detail and subtle nuance that she hopes truly reflects the true nature of the attractive subjects she portrays.

Paint It! Ellicott City 2025 partners and sponsors coming soon. 2024 partners included Visit Howard County and our award sponsors: The Family of Gino Manelli, Blossoms of Hope, Howard County Historical Society, Patapsco Heritage Greenway, AARP Maryland, and The Family of Carole Zink.

Each year, a selection of special awards are presented during the juried exhibit reception and awards ceremony at Howard County Center for the Arts and the Open Paint exhibit reception and award ceremony at Howard County Welcome Center in Historic Ellicott City. These awards are sponsored by our partners and selected by the juror and applicable partners.

Due to venue renovations in 2025, there are no plans for an Open Paint exhibition event, however we encourage artists who are not juried in to come to Ellicott City for the weekend and participate in the Paint Out.

There are two ways to participate as a Paint It! artist: you may apply for selection as a juried artist, or you can register to take part in the non-juried Open Paint portion of the event. Applications for juried artists will open in February and be due in early April. Open Paint registration will be available in May.

Due to venue renovations in 2025, there are no plans for an Open Paint exhibition event, however we encourage artists who are not juried in to come to Ellicott City for the weekend and participate in the Paint Out. 

Artists are invited to paint in the historic district of Ellicott City, Maryland for three days in mid-June, creating original artwork that will be shown in a six-week exhibit at the Howard County Center for the Arts’ Gallery I. Artists who are not juried into the exhibit may still participate in the Open Paint portion of the event. Participating artists will also enjoy an exhibit reception, and juror’s awards.

Due to venue renovations in 2025, there are no plans for an Open Paint exhibition event, however we encourage artists who are not juried in to come to Ellicott City for the weekend and participate in the Paint Out.

All artists working en plein air in oil, acrylic, pastel, or watercolor aged 18 years and older are eligible to apply.

To enter Paint It! Ellicott City, interested artists should review the exhibit prospectus for the current year, pay the entry fee, and complete the online entry form at submittable.www.hocoarts.org. Mailed entries will not be accepted.

The Paint It! Ellicott City application asks for the following information:

Contact Information

• Artist’s name
• Address
• Email
• Phone 

Entries

• Artists may submit up to four entries for consideration. You will need to provide the title, medium, dimensions, and year completed, along with one image (.jpg) for each work.
• Entries must be individual files in jpg format. Label each file with the artist’s last name, first initial, and the entry number corresponding to the entry form (e.g. SmithJ_1.jpg). Each file should be less than 1MB. 
• Do not submit more than the requested number of artworks; they will not be viewed.

Up to 30 artists will be selected to participate in the juried portion of the Paint It! Ellicott City exhibition at the Howard County Center for the Arts. Selected juried artists will be expected to attend the paint out event in Ellicott City and produce at least one artwork in that time and place en plein air (without the use of photographs) to be hung in HoCo Arts’ Gallery I. Included artworks will need to be framed and are required to stay in the gallery for the duration of the exhibit.

A non-refundable entry fee of $30 is due at the time of entry. All fees go toward awards and costs for the event.

A 20% commission will be retained by HoCo Arts on all sales of artwork included in the exhibit, as well as any sales during the plein air event. Work is not required to be for sale.

A minimum of $4,000 in cash awards will be presented by the juror, including the $1,000 Gino Awards. Named in honor of Gino Manelli (1915-2010), Gino was an avid artist and cyclist who established his art studio in Ellicott City in 1966. Over a 70-year artistic career, Gino created landscapes, portraits, and still lifes in a range of media and styles with dramatic color use and a dynamic palette knife, creating emotional, engaging artwork. His work is in galleries in the United States and Europe.

All work is insured against physical damage or loss, less the 20% commission, from time of receipt by HoCo Arts through the designated date and time of pick-up.

The decision of the juror is final. All accepted work must remain in the gallery for the duration of the exhibit. HoCo Arts reserves the right to photograph artwork and artists for publicity and educational purposes and to use images of submitted work for the same purposes. HoCo Arts reserves the right to reject work not suitably presented. All work must be original, no reproductions (including giclee, commercially printed, or computer-generated reproductions of paintings, drawings, etc.) Submission of an entry constitutes understanding and agreement with all conditions mentioned in this prospectus.

• February – Juried artist submissions open
• April – Juried Entry Deadline
• May – Open Paint Registration
• June – Artist Orientation and Kick-Off Event
  • Paint Out
  • Artist Registration 
  • Drop-off artwork
  • Reception; free and open to the public
• August – Exhibit closes
  • Pick-up artwork

Due to venue renovations in 2025, there are no plans for an Open Paint exhibition event, however we encourage artists who are not juried in to come to Ellicott City for the weekend and participate in the Paint Out.