Learn about pastels, emotion, choices and pioneer painters who helped open up the West as Common Ground returns to Aitkin, Minnesota. for part two of an outdoor painting competition.

Experience the beauty of Aitkin County as five outdoor painters share their thought process while they paint in this second program of a two part series following an open air painting competition based at the Jaques Art Center in Aitkin.

The event attracts artists from far and wide. Cynthia Kath from Minneapolis introduces viewers to the art of painting with pastels, Susan Klem shares about emotion and the choices a painter makes as she paints lily pads at a stunningly beautiful wetland location and Paul Boecher, an acrylic artist based in Hennepin County tells about the part frontier artists played in the opening up of the West.