Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2021-2022 i PleinAir Magazine

Rediscovered 25 years ago, this small plein air oil sketch shed light on a little-known aspect of Jean Honoré Fragonard’s practice. Described as “a quick response to nature, as if the artist were recording an impression glimpsed from a carriage window as it rolled through the countryside,” it confirms that although drawing en plein air was well established by the mid-18th century, the artist was an early adopter of painting full-color aides memoires outdoors. Beginning with paper prepared with a thin white ground, Fragonard quickly outlined the major forms, using black chalk or crayon. He then thinly brushed in the foreground and the masses of trees with oil, returning with thicker brushstrokes to add volume and character to the foliage. The mountain range at the lower center and the cloudy…

Most artists are happy to talk about what inspires them, where and with whom they studied, the subjects they pursue, the medium in which they work, or the techniques they employ. But talking about money — what their work costs, how and when they want to be paid, whether they allow discounts, and if so, how much — knocks them off a lofty perch, making them feel like used-car salesmen. PRICING ARTWORK In the building trades, contractors charge hourly rates, as well as the cost of materials plus an average 15 percent markup, but artists cannot do the same. Some artists simply work more slowly than others, for one thing. More importantly, the final price may have no relationship to the market for the artist’s work, especially if the artist…

I love to paint mud.” We’re accustomed to artists seeing beauty where others may not. Still, the above statement is notable. Who has looked at small rivulets cutting paths through wet mud and seen a promising composition? Mary Monk has. In fact, wherever there’s water on the land, be it in the furrows of a field, the broken surface of a marsh, or across the ocean’s vista, there is a potential Mary Monk painting. “Water has always been a fascination of mine,” she says. “When I was young, we didn’t get out much to other places. My family was a group of homebodies. When I was in school, we took a field trip to the river, and I just sat there and stared at it. Not that I hadn’t seen…

Step 1 Set up on the top level of a parking garage in downtown Baltimore, I loosely sketch the composition in pencil, then strengthen some lines with vine charcoal. Step 2 I review my gear, including a tackle box full of watercolor paints, palette surfaces, and a selection of large 2 to 4-inch brushes, in preparation for adding color. Step 3 I dip my hand in a water container and arbitrarily moisten the paper. Step 4 I start painting at the top of this 36 x 48-inch surface, allowing gravity to work its magic and embracing the running and dripping of watercolor throughout. Step 5 My palette is quickly covered with a slurry of paint and water, and I periodically tip the palette into my hand, then toss the mixture…

The 11th annual PleinAir Salon consists of 12 monthly contests from April 2021 to March 2022. The awards will be presented in May at the Plein Air Convention & Expo, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. First, Second, and Third Place, along with the category winners of each monthly contest, are automatically entered into the annual competition. First prize in the annual Salon 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, with three Honorable Mentions and a People’s Choice Award taking home $500 each. Artists also earn cash for the top prizes in the monthly contests.…

Having successfully navigated the obstacles of 2020, the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) held the 23rd Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational this October. The nine-day in-person event, however, was not without its challenges. Unseasonably warm weather, a tragic oil spill, and a dramatic electrical storm threatened to derail the event, but the 33 plein air painters from around the country were not deterred, rising to the occasion to deliver a fantastic show. The new technology LPAPA had embraced to keep the event going in 2020 helped too, as the organization was able to include virtual access along with the live events, providing opportunities for art lovers near and far to join the celebration. Invitational events included the Quick Draw competition, live and online Art Talks with artists…

In early October, a group of artists gathered for Fall Color Week with PleinAir Magazine publisher Eric Rhoads. Designed to provide artists the opportunity to experience plein air painting (sometimes for the first time), make new friends, and learn from one another, the annual Publisher’s Invitational event moves to a different location each year. This year, the event took place for the first time in the Adirondacks, the same area of the country where Rhoads has held a June event for the past decade. Together, the participating artists stayed at a youth camp called Saranac Village, which is situated right on the water and has acres and acres of paintable scenery. While the weather was spectacular for most of the week, on one rainy morning, Kathie Odom demonstrated for the…

If you’ve attended my art marketing sessions at the Plein Air Convention & Expo, you’ve probably heard me talk about how artists need to understand that attrition will always affect their customer lists. For instance, if you have 100 names on your list of prospects, 10 percent of them will go away every year because of loss of interest, changed circumstances, lack of money, changes to health, or death. I also talk about how in 2008, when we had a major economic crash, most artists and galleries saw attrition of 40 to 60 percent of their customers. I teach that marketing art is like an escalator: there are always people going down the escalator, while others are coming up. Our job is to find ways to bring new people in,…

Of the sky, philosopher and art critic John Ruskin (English, 1819–1900) once said, “It is the part of creation in which Nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works.” The artists who created the 17 paintings featured here each tell their own unique story about the sky, from vibrant sunrises and sunsets to the drama of a cloudy afternoon. “I have painted this inspirational view at the Hameau Farm Studio Artist Retreat many times, but this particular sunset was special,” says Susan Nicholas Gephart. “I captured it in a brief painting session and never touched it again.” “I had just finished teaching a two-day plein air workshop…

Step 1 Mary Monk started this painting by sketching the primary elements on sanded paper mounted on Gatorboard, using an orange-brown pastel. “I chose a color that wasn’t going to cause a problem with what I was drawing, one that was already going to be in the composition,” she says. “It needed to be soft enough not to distract me when I put in the sky.” Step 2 The backlit subject suggested to Monk that she next put down the darkest areas in shadow, which in this case were in the clump of mud and vegetation in the scene. “I usually start with the sky, but here I put in the darks to establish the value range,” says the artist. “I didn’t know if the shadows were going to be…

“What could be more exhilarating than getting out under a great sky and feeling a fresh breeze while I paint the delights of nature?”— Richard Schmid (1934-2021)…

One hundred years ago, artists and teachers from as far away as the Chicago Art Institute found their way to the tiny community of Christoval, just south of San Angelo, Texas, where the emerald spring waters of the South Concho River called them to come and paint outdoors. Now in its eighth year, the annual EnPleinAirTEXAS International Juried Competition honors the tradition of plein air painting in the region. At this October’s event, 31 award-winning artists from around the country enjoyed perfect sunny fall weather and access to 14 private ranches. By the end of the week, 197 paintings inspired by scenery that ranged from dry creek beds to a high vista of the Edwards Plateau had been sold. With art sales averaging more than $200,000 annually, event organizers expect…

Showcasing the beauty of Colorado’s Yampa Valley, the paintings created during the annual Steamboat Art Museum plein air event spotlighted historic landmarks, ranches, the community of Steamboat Springs, and the growing arts and cultural offerings in the area. This year’s featured artist and guest judge Jane Hunt presented these awards in the professional category: First Place to Orville Giguento for Yampa’s Twin Butte, Second Place to Adam Zabel for Stagecoach Waterfront, Third Place to Richie Vios for Routt County, and Honorable Mentions to Joshua Been for Meandering Through Autumn and David Harms for September Serenade. Awards of Excellence were presented to Richie Vios for Routt County (Main Street Steamboat Award of Excellence), Susan Gill Jackson for Hats & Bags (Main Street Steamboat Farmer’s Market), Judi Beauford for Vista Hermosa Grill…

With many states easing COVID-19 restrictions this year, more and more artists and organizers found ways to bring events back to the communities and collectors who missed them. To talk about their triumphs and the challenges they faced — and to look ahead to what we can all expect in 2022 — I chatted with three prominent members of the plein air community — Catherine Hoke, executive director of the Peninsula School of Art, which presents the Door County Plein Air Festival; Lillian Ansley, co-founder of Olmsted Plein Air Invitational; and Suzie Baker, president of Oil Painters of America (OPA) and an accomplished plein air painter herself. Kelly Kane: How would you describe the engagement and interest in plein air before the pandemic hit? Lillian Ansley: Olmsted operates in an…

If you hit upon a formula that dependably resulted in steady sales, would you keep making the same type of painting, over and over? If so, how many do you imagine you could you do before you would feel compelled to stop? Some of us may hope to face such a conundrum. But artistic growth means challenging oneself, and it’s not hard to find successful artists who have worked through such questions and vowed to paint for themselves. Chris Morel is one. “When you get to know a group of painters like I have, you are constantly inspired and trying to continue to learn, to up your game,” Morel says. “Everybody is working hard. The pros I’ve met in this business are really dedicated to their craft. My advice to…

The phrase “sophisticated chaos” comes from one of my students, who used it to describe my painting style after watching me demo for the class. It so perfectly represents the clash between a detailed underdrawing and an expressive painting that I quickly adopted it to characterize my process. In the past, some of my preliminary pencil sketches remained visible through the finished paintings, but with my current work, I’ve been simplifying the drawings — often just making modest marks with vine charcoal. In the end, the drawing and painting combine to create a strikingly physical presence. As my work has developed, my style and methodology seem to be about “more” — more scale, more paint, more water, more effects, more everything. I found that as the work got larger, my…

In October, Paul Kratter and I invited California Art Club (CAC) members to join us for a two-night, three-day retreat in Yosemite, an opportunity for artists to get together and continue the tradition of painting in this pristine landscape,” says Ellen Howard. “This year, attendees received a wonderful presentation by artist James McGrew, who also serves as a seasonal Yosemite ranger and naturalist every summer, about the history of the park and the artists who originally painted there. They were also treated to a demo by CAC signature member and president Michael Obermeyer, in which he interpreted one of his favorite views in the park. On the last day, they had the opportunity to receive a critique of their work from CAC signature member Chuck Kovacic. The best part of…

OIL | KATHLEEN HUDSON Skies tell the story of the light and atmosphere in a landscape, setting the scene for a painting. That can be the case even in a high-horizon piece where the sky doesn’t take up much retail space on the canvas. In a low-horizon painting that features the sky, clouds can form the bulwark of the composition — leading the eye into a focal area and providing perspective to create a sense of distance. I particularly love skies with dramatic, sweeping movement and strong diagonal angles, which give a painting a sense of dynamism. For more subtle compositions I like the look of cloud banks along a horizon, which is great for lending a feeling of atmospheric distance without a distracting pattern in marine or coastal pieces.…

‘BEST OF’ CATEGORY AWARDS…

With record membership and 114 registrations for the 18th annual Plein Air Grand Marais event, organizer Outdoor Painters of Minnesota reports that enthusiasm for outdoor painting has grown to an all-time high this year. Situated on the North Shore of Lake Superior, the annual competition and festival features daily paint-outs, mini-workshops, and social events for painters at every level of experience. The event also celebrates artists in the Arrowhead region with an invitational class of the competition. This year, participating painters in both classes were allowed to begin a month early in the hope that they would be able to paint at more distant locations in Cook County than time would allow during competition week. The result was an incredible range of subject matter, from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area…

This year’s Celebration of Art plein air event at Grand Canyon National Park provided both online and in-person activities, with an artist paint-out at the South Rim and an online auction that raised funds for a dedicated art venue at the park. In its 13th year, the event welcomed back all of their 2020 artists to paint outdoors for a week at the canyon, providing visitors a chance to engage with the painters and the landscape in a unique way. A combination juried and invitational event, Celebration of Art presented three awards to artists: People’s Choice Award (determined by the general public through online voting) to John D. Cogan; the Artists’ Choice Award, the event as he was battling cancer and sadly passed away in the final days of the…

Being raised in Hawaii was a blessing in disguise when it came to the fine arts,” says Clint Bova. “There were a lot of artists, especially landscape painters, roaming about, as well as accomplished Hawaiian portrait artists. “After I graduated from a 12-year stint at Punahou School, my family moved to Borneo, where I became immersed in a whole new culture. Although it was a bittersweet departure from my comfort zone on the islands, it allowed me to further my visual vocabulary and explore new subjects. “As an adult, I spent some time in Los Angeles before taking a job in a leading design firm in the Midwest. I missed the water, but quickly found respite in the Mad River. I later learned that I frequent the exact stretch that…