Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2020 i PleinAir Magazine

While staying with Claude Monet at his home in the village of Argenteuil on the outskirts of Paris, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) captured his friend in pursuit of their shared passion — painting outdoors. The day was overcast and the dahlias were in full bloom as the artists set up in a neighbor’s yard, just a few steps from Monet’s own house — the cream-colored one with blue shutters on the left. While Monet focused intently on the flowers, Renoir found inspiration in his fellow painter. Here we see the carefully posed artist standing before his canvas, a brush in his right hand and in his left, his palette and other brushes. A box of paints and an umbrella lay beneath the easel. An X-ray would later reveal that this piece…

As a painting subject, the cityscape enjoys a relatively short history. Beginning with a Roman fresco dating to the first century A.D., cities showed up in art primarily as backdrops for portraits and biblical themes, or in service of mapping overviews. It wasn’t until the mid-17th century that the city came into its own as a worthy theme. In View of Delft (1660–1661), Jan Vermeer painted an accurate portrait of the Dutch city, touching off a trend of cityscape painting that existed through the 19th century. In their work, the Impressionists took the theme further and shone a spotlight on the atmosphere and dynamics of everyday urban life. As was the case for most realistic painting genres, however, cityscapes took a back seat to abstract and conceptual art through much…

View of the scene A Quick Study I work fast to capture the quality of light and shifts of color in Saddle Peak Winter Study. I will bring the 12 x 16-inch study with me on three additional painting sessions to remind me of the effects I’m aiming to achieve on a larger canvas. Painting Session 1 To take advantage of the limited amount of sunlight available to me this time of year, I break down the painting process over several sessions. At this stage, I pay particular attention to the light and shadow patterns as I block in the basic shapes. Painting Session 2 Working on a larger scale, I have the time and space to bring out the detail and special qualities that drew me to the landscape…

For many artists, their passion for art begins with a painting seen in childhood, a picture hanging in the family home, a reproduction pored over in a book, or a work of art encountered at a museum. For Colorado-based artist Jane Hunt, her early muse was a reproduction of Claude Monet’s Coquelicots — a famous view of two pairs of figures strolling in a field sprinkled with poppies under a brilliant summer sky. “The painting has been especially meaningful to me since I was small,” she says. “We moved quite often, but wherever we were living that painting was always hanging — the one stable element. I spent hours immersed in it as a child, and it still elicits a sense of home in many ways.” Looking closely at the…

There’s no question that the resourceful painter can make the most of any landscape, often needing to venture no farther than their own backyard for inspiration. But let’s face it, some settings make finding that inspiration easier than others. Plus, part of the challenge and reward for the plein air painter is traveling and exploring new places. This summer, we asked artists to recommend their favorite places to paint en plein air. From the enthusiastic response we received, we were able to compile this list of 25 top plein air painting locations. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Yellowstone National Park sits atop a volcanic hot spot. Mostly in Wyoming, the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho as well. Popular features include dramatic canyons; alpine rivers; lush forests; hot springs; and…

Winter in Montana behaves like an unsteady drunk. It crashes into fall, stumbles through the solstice, then lurches headlong toward spring. At my northern latitude, winter is greedy and unpredictable. It’s best just to get out of the way as it weaves its erratic path through the colder months. Eventually it will come crashing down and curl up for a long snooze. It’s then that wary artists will emerge from their studios, dust off their plein air equipment, squint into the bright sunlight, and head out into the tender green of spring. But is the hiatus really necessary? I’ve heard people talk about a “plein air season” as if it has a start and end date, a span that excludes the winter months. Winter is for eggnog and studio painting,…

Studying painting in New York City taught Emilie Lee a lot about creating art, but the more she lost herself in rigorous routines and others’ expectations, the more trapped and voiceless she felt. Through road trips that reconnected her with the outdoors she loves, she found her escape and landed on a much more fulfilling path to making meaningful art. “When I left New York, I tried to start a new life in Vermont, where I grew up,” says Lee of returning home after eight years in the city. She had studied with renowned painter Jacob Collins, and then was a principal artist and instructor at the Grand Central Atelier, and a senior fellow at the Hudson River Fellowship. Before that, the 38-year-old earned her bachelor’s degree in illustration at…

No other element weighs as heavily on the success or failure of a painting as value design. We see evidence of its power in the Japanese notan; the work of Howard Pyle, the father of illustration; Rembrandt’s portraits; and Käthe Kollwitz’s drawings. For plein air painters, it’s important to harness that power early and convincingly. With time of the essence, most experienced outdoor painters aim to establish a strong pattern of light and shadow in the first 15 to 20 minutes. Brushwork and color come second to the development of a graphic roadmap on which to build their paintings. In fact, I’ve seen many discard their efforts and start anew if those first critical moments don’t yield a pleasing foundation, a practice we know both John Singer Sargent and James…

‘BEST OF’ CATEGORY AWARDS The PleinAir Salon consists of six bimonthly contests, with the First, Second, and Third Place winners of each contest, and the category winners, automatically entered into the annual competition. First prize in the annual competition is $15,000 cash and the publication of the winning image on the cover of PleinAir Magazine, along with a feature story. Second Place earns an artist $3,000 and an article in the digital edition of PleinAir Magazine. Third Place yields $1,500 in cash. Three additional finalists win $500 each. The annual prizes will be presented at the 2020 Plein Air Convention & Expo in Denver, Colorado. Artists also earn $1,000 cash for First Place in the bimonthly contests. Second Place, Third Place, and category winners in each bimonthly contest will be…

Painting workshops have become the go-to method of instruction for many who want to express their artistic side and gain access to the world of fine art. For those who studied art in school, but for whatever reason were unable to pursue it, a two- to five-day workshop offers an affordable and timely opportunity to reignite a passion that may have lain largely dormant for years. Newly retired or with children out of the house, students have the time, desire, and resources to express themselves in a different way. But making that first step can be intimidating. Here, I, along with Roger Dale Brown, Barbara Jaenicke, Jeff Legg, Lori Putnam, Matt Smith, and Dawn Whitelaw share tips we hope will alleviate any concerns and set students up for success. As…

Patrick Lee’s paintings are well known and appreciated by a certain segment of the plein air community — those who like paintings that veer toward abstraction. Because it’s such a defining characteristic of the artist’s work, we should agree on a definition of the term before we go any further. For Lee, abstraction does not mean utterly non-representational. And if you look up the word in a dictionary, you’ll find several meanings that back up the artist’s position, including 1) focusing on a quality rather than a literal meaning of a thing, and 2) reducing or condensing a larger whole into a much smaller and more succinct summary. Lee primarily describes the act of pushing the abstract quality of his work as editing out almost all information, leaving only the…

View of the scene The interesting abstract composition and pattern of light and dark in this scene draw me in. As the day is overcast, the light will remain steady for the entire time I paint. A neutral moderate dark green and neutral moderate light green dominate, with light and dark accents on the trunks that help define the shape and appearance of the trees. Step 1 For my surface, I choose a failed plein air painting of buildings that has the tone I want. I sand the surface and apply linseed oil before starting the new work. (Sometimes the ghosts of old paintings give us courage to be creative.) Step 2 The used panel provides a randomness over which I can lay mixes from my current palette of Naples…

For the plein air painter, the southern United States serves up a delicious array of painting subjects — from coastal salt marshes and barrier islands to bucolic farmlands and deciduous forests, from antebellum homes and colonial churches to towering lighthouses. Dee Beard Dean founded the Plein Air Painters of the Southeast (PAP-SE) in 2001 to organize plein air painters in the region and promote their work. President Bill Farnsworth says this about the group: “The Plein Painters of the Southeast are some of the best painters in America today. Their greatest strength is that they care about one another and have formed friendships that will last a lifetime. For its 20th anniversary, PAP-SE is spreading the message that working in plein air is part of the process of painting, not…

There is nothing like painting snow,” says R. Gregory Summers. “Sometimes I watch the Weather Channel just for the opportunity. This October, I indulged in person when an early snowstorm hit the Rockies. Traveling from my home near Kansas City to Loveland, Colorado, I found myself in the right place at the right time. I moved along the Front Range canyons, venturing south from Poudre Canyon, to capture the snow before it melted away. In Boulder, I found a safe place to park and trekked through the timber towards Left Hand Creek. With the sun high in the sky, I focused on the water and the light coming through the thick trees above. I love the intimacy of this piece and the fact that it could be just about Anywhere,…