In September of 2007, watercolor artist Andy Evansen and three friends—oil painters Jason Situ, Kevin Macpherson and John Budicin—had a rare opportunity to explore both the world and their own abilities as artists. They were invited to travel to the city of Kaiping in southeastern China for a seven-day plein air painting trip. Though they'd done little planning and knew very little what to expect, the experience proved to be a memorable (and productive) one for the artists. Read about their special journey and see photos and paintings from the trip in our latest online exclusive: a free downloadable pdf of the full-text feature.