WISCASSET — Response to the Maine Art Gallery’s call for artists to participate in this year’s plein air “Paint the Town” event has been overwhelming, the gallery reports.

It has had to turn away last-minute applicants for lack of exhibit space in the historic Academy building on Warren Street. Normally, fewer than 12 participants joined in the event, but this year the cut-off was made at 22.

Artists are to begin creating paintings throughout the village on Wednesday, July 21, and the “wet paint” works will be exhibited for sale at the gallery on Saturday, July 24, at 15 Warren St.

The artists have been invited to provide a limited number of completed paintings to be on exhibit and for sale at the gallery during normal hours beginning Wednesday.

Gallery hours are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 24, when a reception for artists and the public will be held beginning at 4 p.m.

The public is invited to observe the artists as they interpret the local landscape.

The Maine Art Gallery is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement and preservation of painting, sculpture and graphic arts through exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, and educational programs for children and adults.

More information can be found at maineartgallerywiscasset.org and on Facebook at Maine Art Gallery Wiscasset.