A Fresh Paint is a charity

Charity (practice)

The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.- Etymology :The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".Originally in Latin the word caritas meant...

 fundraiser

Fundraiser

A fundraiser is an event or campaign whose primary purpose is to raise money for a cause. See also: fundraising. A fundraiser can also be an individual or company whose primary job is to raise money for a specific charity or non-profit organization...

 that includes artists painting outdoors. They generally involve some mixture of silent and live auction immediately following the creation of the paintings and before they are fully dry. The first Fresh Paint art event was held in 1988 by the Copley Society of Art

Copley Society of Art

The Copley Society of art is America's oldest non-profit art association. It was founded in 1879 by the first graduating class of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and continues to play an important role in promoting its member artists and the visual arts in Boston...

 in Boston, Massachusetts, and continues to be held there annually in springtime.

Fresh Paint fundraising events increase visibility for non-profit art organizations. At the Copley event, artists spend one day together painting outdoors, or en plein air

En plein air

En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...

in the city of Boston. The paintings are brought back to the gallery wet, placed directly into frames, and hung immediately on the walls. The paintings are then listed for sale through silent auction.