ABOUT PLEIN AIR PAINTING

 What is Plein Air Painting?

Many of you may have heard the term Plein Air or Plein Air Painting and wondered what the speaker was talking about. “Plein Air” in French literally means "in full air". For artists a Plein Air painting is one that is painted almost entirely in the field, outdoors in front of the subject. 

Some date Plein Air painting to John Constable, the English master painter in the Romantic style who was one of the first painters to approach landscape by actually painting in the outdoors, not just in a studio. Today, Plein Air is experiencing a renaissance around the country. Plein Air societies, painter’s workshops and books and articles on Plein Air painters and technique are found throughout the U.S.

With the invention of the metal tube of paint in the mid-19th century, it became possible for just about anyone to venture outside to paint. (Prior to that paint was packaged in pig bladders!) The European Impressionists brought this practice to a whole new level of artistic expression.

In the United States Plein Air painting took off especially in California and New Mexico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was the pristine and rugged beauty of California that inspired painters in the early part of this century to create the works that now comprise the school of Early California Impressionism. Unlike their counterparts on the East Coast, the California painters celebrated the pristine landscape. These were the wide-open spaces, a seemingly limitless vista of landscapes which begged to be painted. Painters such as William Wendt, Franz Bischoff, Guy Rose and John Gamble recorded on canvas the untouched beauty of California in those early days.


Like the Impressionists, modern Plein Air artists generally paint "alla prima"--laying down a scene with quick, broad, colorful brush strokes--in one session. The technique is often called "fat over lean," which means that the painter blocks out composition, shapes and values in thinned paint and then finishes with richer, undiluted paint. A single painting is generally completed within 2 hours, because light changes so quickly. Plein Air work is recognized for its energy and immediacy--landscapes painted quickly, with loose, confident strokes that capture the contrast between light and shadow, the mood of the day.


Why Paint Outside?

A photograph offers so many (and so obvious) advantages as a source for painting, why paint outside? While photos are great for reference, when you rely solely on photography you run the risk of possible object distortion and flattening of the subject. Also photos do not generally render accurate color and values. The result is washed-out highlights and/or blocked-in darks.

If you are trying to capture your reaction to the landscape and convey this to the viewer, painting on location allows a much more thorough study of the scene--how it feels as the day progresses. A photograph records what a place looked like at a particular moment. It doesn’t record what it feels like to be there.

Another reason to paint outdoors is to loosen up. The sky changes, the light changes, and the painter has to work fairly quickly.

To paint outside is to accept some constraints: weather, lighting, changing clouds and shadows. However these inconveniences are worth it to the Plein Air painter.

This being said, most Plein Air painters take several photos of the subject to serve as a reference if they plan to finish the painting in the studio.

What Makes it “Plein Air?”

The National Association of Professional Plein Air Painters standards state: Plein Air paintings are 90% completed on site and painted from life.  Plein Air preliminary work such as color studies and sketches designed to generate studio paintings do not qualify as finished Plein Air painting.  A Plein Air painter is someone who paints the majority of his/her finished paintings on site. 
 
When I call one of my works a Plein Air painting, I mean that it was started in the field--I chose the composition, laid in the shapes and values and generally got to a 75-100% completed painting out of doors. In many cases however, when I get back to the studio, I make corrections such as adding highlights or adjusting some values.

How to Approach a Plein Air Painting

Many Plein Air painters start with a Pochade. This is a "hasty sketch" or a sketch to establish values, layout, design and movement. This sketch (along with available photographs) serve as a reference. I do not use a notepad and pencil for this sketch, rather I usually tone my canvas with a light color--something that is complementary to what I think the color scheme will be...maybe a red wash for a painting that will have a lot of blues...and then I sketch with slightly more pigmented paint into this wash. If the compostion looks off, I simply scrub it out with a cloth and start again.

If I am satisfied with the composition, I lay in large areas of shadow...the darkest parts of the painting. Then I try to resolve how the painting will look by laying in the sky. This will give me an indication of the value of those objects---mountains, horizon lines, etc., that will be adjacent to the sky. From then on it is mid tones and adjusting, adjusting, adjusting. Finally, I add in the detail and the highlights. This is the most fun, but is sort of icing on the cake. You have to work through the entire painting to get to this step.

In the middle of painting most paintings (mine at least) go through an awkward teenage phase, where I wonder if the painting will ever approximate the beauty I see in nature. But most times by simply looking and adjusting I can reach a level that at least satisfies me for the moment.