" Sunday Afternoon" 9x12 oil on linen"Spanish Point" 12x16 oil on linen
Recent conversations about Plein Air painting have me thinking about what I believe is a misconception many have about plein air painting, and what it really is. I can remember when the term for studies, or paintings done outdoors was Field Sketches…….now Plein Air seems to be the universal term everyone uses for outdoor painting. Plein Air is actually a French expression which means, In the open air. Artists have been trying to capture the natural light outdoors since before the turn of the century…..1870s the Naturalist and the Impressionist were the strongest proponents, and passionately pursued this type of painting.
Some folks think that plein air is a style of painting. There may be some who teach plein air as a painting style. The problem with teaching any style is that, as beautiful as they might be, sometimes it might be difficult to distinguish one from the other. I personally feel that plein air painting is not a style of painting. It should not be thought of as a style, but the actual act of, or process, of painting out doors. Many artist do large compositions outdoors taking several days to complete…..this is still plein air painting. There almost always seems to be a freshness, or spontaneous immediacy to paintings done from life, but one does not have to necessarily change the look, or style of one’s paintings just because one is painting plein air, or outdoors. It really does not make sense to think of it differently. Of course, I am only speaking for myself. The only difference would be of time management, weather conditions, or anticipation of possible light changes.
I personally try to have my studio paintings, and my plein air paintings look as though one could not tell whether it was done in studio, or on location. That does not always happen of course, but then all paintings are not always successful…..but, it is my intent to treat them the same. I have some paintings that I think satisfy that criteria more than others, and after being set aside for sometime, it is difficult to tell which are plein air, or studio paintings. I am not a pure plein air painter, and I actually spend more time in the studio, but I know the value of painting from life, or outdoors, makes me a better studio painter. If nothing else, it teaches one to recognize the deficiency of photo reference. Cameras capture technical information wonderfully, but unfortunately cannot see what the human eye can see……when it comes to interpreting what one observes.
Recent conversations about Plein Air painting have me thinking about what I believe is a misconception many have about plein air painting, and what it really is. I can remember when the term for studies, or paintings done outdoors was Field Sketches…….now Plein Air seems to be the universal term everyone uses for outdoor painting. Plein Air is actually a French expression which means, In the open air. Artists have been trying to capture the natural light outdoors since before the turn of the century…..1870s the Naturalist and the Impressionist were the strongest proponents, and passionately pursued this type of painting.
Some folks think that plein air is a style of painting. There may be some who teach plein air as a painting style. The problem with teaching any style is that, as beautiful as they might be, sometimes it might be difficult to distinguish one from the other. I personally feel that plein air painting is not a style of painting. It should not be thought of as a style, but the actual act of, or process, of painting out doors. Many artist do large compositions outdoors taking several days to complete…..this is still plein air painting. There almost always seems to be a freshness, or spontaneous immediacy to paintings done from life, but one does not have to necessarily change the look, or style of one’s paintings just because one is painting plein air, or outdoors. It really does not make sense to think of it differently. Of course, I am only speaking for myself. The only difference would be of time management, weather conditions, or anticipation of possible light changes.
I personally try to have my studio paintings, and my plein air paintings look as though one could not tell whether it was done in studio, or on location. That does not always happen of course, but then all paintings are not always successful…..but, it is my intent to treat them the same. I have some paintings that I think satisfy that criteria more than others, and after being set aside for sometime, it is difficult to tell which are plein air, or studio paintings. I am not a pure plein air painter, and I actually spend more time in the studio, but I know the value of painting from life, or outdoors, makes me a better studio painter. If nothing else, it teaches one to recognize the deficiency of photo reference. Cameras capture technical information wonderfully, but unfortunately cannot see what the human eye can see……when it comes to interpreting what one observes.
Obviously, the time restraint of light outdoors requires that one either work on a size that is manageable for one short session, or one has to come back to that location on subsequent days (with similar light) to complete a larger composition. I heard, or read, something about this subject once that made sense to me…..“when in the studio, pretend that you are on location and use your experience from painting from life, and some of that immediacy and freshness might be conveyed in the studio work“, or something to that effect. It is something that I am always conscious of, and certainly something to consider. I am sure there are many views on this subject, and it probably has been discussed and pondered with all views being valid. Being that I am a studio painter, and a plein air painter, this is just a personal observation that I wanted to share, and certainly does not necessarily reflect a universal attitude towards this subject.
Paintings that I do outdoors always seem to be in a much higher light key than those I do inside. I like that. I try to apply that fact to my studio work, but invariably I fail. I hope that the longer that I persevere with painting outdoors, the more I'll be able to do what you just said-understand the defects of photographs and translate that to my indoor work.
ReplyDeleteI think that is the biggest difference....the camera can't see what the eye can see. Learning that helps in the studio situation. Thanks for the good comment.
DeleteI enjoyed your thoughts on this and totally agree. "Plein air," or "outdoor painting" as I call it, is only a classroom for me and my studio work reaps the benefits of my study outdoors. I found you through another artist (Rusty Jones) and am enjoy going back and reading your posts.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marsha. Randy is terrific artist and a Texas friend. Glad you enjoy the blog.
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