Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2022 i PleinAir Magazine

1. Childe Hassam, one of the leading American Impressionists, captured contemporary life in Chicago, Illinois in his cityscape “World’s Fair, Chicago (1893-94)”, Choosing to minimize his connection to France, he claimed he was influenced by “plein air prototypes of nineteenth century English painters.” 2. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, George Bellows was an American Realist Painter who was the “most acclaimed American artist of his generation” according to the Columbus Museum of Art. In December 1999, his 1910 painting “Polo Crowd” sold for $27.5 million dollars to billionaire Bill Gates. 3. A small grasshopper was found embedded in the thick paint of one of Van Gogh’s masterpieces “Olive Trees” while conducting research for a catalog of the French painting collection at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City,…

Artist’s view of subject STEP 1 Line is the first of the five elements that artists use to describe their subject. In my view, it’s the most important as it sets the tone for all that is to come. After stapling watercolor paper to my painting board, I drew the compositional lines, I referred to my sketches as a way to simplify the design, but frequently turned to the subject for specifics. I used a hard-leaded 2H graphite pencil to develop the drawing, keeping in mind the large, more abstract shapes, and avoiding becoming too detailed. STEP 2 I wet the entire surface of the watercolor paper with my 3-inch watercolor flat brush. Once the paper was saturated and had a visibly consistent sheen with no obvious puddles, I introduced…

A GRAND TIME AT GRAND TRAVERSE This August, Traverse City, Michigan, played host to 36 of the country’s most talented plein air painters. Presented by Crooked Tree Arts Center, Paint Grand Traverse brought the artists and local community together to appreciate the region’s beautiful landscapes. Lake Michigan shorelines, and charming town and villages. In addition to the annual exhibition and sale of work created during the week’s events, the plein air festival included classes, live demos, and kids’ activities. Awards juror Ken Cadwallader presented Best of Show to Kari Ganoung Ruiz for William C. Selvick at Dock, and Merit Awards to Neal Hughes for Waterfront, Durre Waseem for Dinner With Kids, and Alan Larkin for iFish Town. Hughes also took home the Artists’ Choice for Body of Work award. Honorable…

STEP 1 “I take my time deciding what my field of view will be and what perspective I want,” Jessica L. Bryant says. “My most important consideration is paying attention to what made me choose the subject — what is the mood and sense of place that intrigued me. Then I craft a composition that will serve that intention. I often don’t do a preliminary drawing, and instead use light values to block in the main shapes. I chose to do a drawing on this one because I felt that having a roadmap for the strong value changes would simplify the painting process. Here you can see my painting setup: a Guerrilla Painter Pocket Box, a limited palette, a collapsible water cup, a sponge, a small Fabriano watercolor block, and…

NANCY MACDONALD Nancy Macdonald paints with unashamed directness, using fearlessly bold brushwork and a varied touch to share the marvels of the world that she uncovers on her many travels. Whether it’s sunshine exploding across a tangle of bicycles, a soft gauzy light stretching over a vast expanse of desert, or crisp high-altitude light striking a rocky mountainside, Macdonald is able to bring the scene to life, with almost miraculous immediacy. A speedy painter, she will generally complete a piece in about an hour and a half, trying as far as possible not to fuss, backtrack, or over-describe, confident that the freshness and directness of her brushwork will carry the painting with its own authority. “Sometimes, if something is complex, I might bring it back the next day to do…

ERIN SPENCER Art education: Although I never received a formal education in painting, I’ve always worked with my hands and pursued creative endeavors. And while I’ve learned a lot from direct observation of art, my greatest teacher has been nature herself. Time, passion, luck, and fortunate accidents have paved the road. Painting style: For the most part, my painting style is impressionistic and tonal. Some of my smaller work is direct and observational, whereas my larger studio paintings are mainly indirect and rooted in memory. I feel that design leads the way in my work; subject matter and color are secondary. Favorite subjects: I love clouds because they’re expressive and abstract, leaving room for artistic interpretation. When I first began painting, I wanted to paint clouds that moved beyond solid,…

Watercolors: Daniel Smith — yellow ochre, quinacridone burnt orange, quinacridone red, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue (green shade), titanium white; Holbein neutral tint Surface: Arches 300-lb. rough paper Brushes: 3-inch Robert Simmons Skyflow; 2-inch, 1 1/2-inch, and 1-inch Winsor & Newton No. 965; No. 8 and No. 3 round watercolor brushes Drawing supplies: Small hard-back sketchbook; Micron, Staedler, or Multiliner drawing pens; 2H graphite pencil for construction lines on watercolor paper Misc.: French easel, two Eldajon art palettes, a large water container, paper-covered foam board for securing the watercolor paper, JT 21 stapler (found at hardware stores), paper towels, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (original)…

I had this painting in my head for a few years with two different scenarios — this one, a spring painting using snow-in-summer (a ground cover) as the lightest value to contrast with the stone rabbit, ivy, and rocks in my backyard; and another that I’ll do in the future using actual snow as the lightest value,” says Kathy Anderson. “I’m not sure which came first, the concept of this painting or the idea to pay homage to Andrew Wyeth’s May Day, a mostly two-value painting I’ve always loved. Nevertheless, the thoughts were linked the moment I began to design the composition. “I set up outside on three different occasions to work on the piece before finishing it in the studio. Unfortunately, I was never able to get the ground…

Editor-in-Chief kelly@pleinairmagazine.com outdoorpainter.com facebook.com/pleinairmagazine twitter.com/pleinairmag Instagram.com/pleinairmag Sharing a passion brings people together. Plein air painters and collectors know this as well as anyone. For proof, look no further than the robust and growing number of plein air events and workshops around the country. Artists find inspiration in the landscape and in one another’s work; art lovers share their appreciation for the paintings by engaging with the artists and buying pieces to take home. There’s an exchange of a shared interest in nature and the landscape, of ideas and new ways of looking at the world, of the creative spirit. And that exchange draws us closer. PleinAir Magazine publisher Eric Rhoads calls it “finding your tribe.” Sadly, I learned that we lost one of our tribe shortly before this issue went…

In a 2019 interview with Oliver Enwonwu, Dean Mitchell said, “My mother had warned me that a Black man could not possibly make a living selling pictures in America. I questioned her concerns until my first encounter at the museum, walking through room after room and not seeing any image that looked like me. They did not value the Black artist’s contributions to the art world. This is a psychological castration. In spite of it, artists of color continue to create and offer hope for the next generation.”…

The artist’s view STEP 1 Larry DeGraff sets up on a creek at some small falls by the ruins of an old mill. He chooses to sit down to sketch and paint the composition so the viewpoint makes the falls seem as formidable as possible. He sketches the design using ivory black and titanium white on a neutraltoned panel. The crumbling foundation wall of the old mill offers an interesting element. “The primary focus is the strong white of the water next to the dark rocks in shadow on the left part of the falls,” DeGraff says. “The secondary focus is the old mill’s rock wall on the right. There are so many waterfall paintings; the arch on the right makes the piece a little different.” STEP 2 DeGraff likes…

NG WOON LAM A master in both oil and watercolor, Ng Woon Lam recently had two of his miniature plein air paintings selected to hang in the Prime Minister of Japan’s office. In a recent conversation, the artist shared his approaches to color and design, the benefits he finds in working outdoors, and his idea of the perfect painting day. Kelly Kane: Congratulations on having two of your paintings chosen for the Prime Minister of Japan. How did that opportunity come about? Ng Woon Lam: Thank you! My wife runs a gallery I started called Li Fine Art Gallery, and we have regular support from the public sector, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They purchase artworks to present to visitors from foreign countries or to be taken by government…

Throughout my painting life, the bigness of the West, with its expansive vistas, has had me painting the optimistic promise of open space. Attimberline, 10,000 feet above sea level, windblown evergreens speckle the rocky landscape. Clustered together, they struggle for a toehold in the Twenty Lakes Basin, an area ringed by granite peaks that scream for the attention of an artist’s brush. North Peak forms the back wall of a sun-washed Sierra cirque where the last vestiges of snow cling to its slopes and eventually melt into Cascade Lake. My quandary was how to stuff this stunning vista onto the Arches watercolor paper waiting for me on the easel. In short, I couldn’t. The dramatic shapes and strong contrast in the snowfield draped along the shoulder of North Peak eliminated…