Every third Thursday of the Month, we have our Art Hop, which is our own local Festival of the Arts.
Enjoy Paintings 'en plein aire'
by Janet Sellers
Even with its highly revered art history, Plein Aire painting is very likely the simplest painting to do.
Not that it is the easiest, but with some training and practice, it just may be one of the most satisfying art genres for
you to get involved with next - to collect as well as to paint. Originally begun as a way to record visual notes to
take back to the studio to complete as a painting, the plein aire genre has taken on a life of its own since the invention
of the very mobile paint tubes at the end of the 19th century.
Time was, artists ground their own pigments and mixed them with the binder medium, such as egg yolk (very short-lived to
paint with, albeit amazingly beautiful and long-lived as art works on panels) or oil. Honey was a popular medium for
water colors, since it held its place in the paint pot and melted easily with water.
When the grand invention of paint tubes arrived, artists no longer had to lug around their old containers of a pig's bladder
with a bone stopper or cork, and could lug the simplest supplies possible and pack up their paint, easels and brushes and
go off in the family horse buggy to a nice place to paint and picnic for a day.
Monet often took his little rowboat out into his home made pond (he stopped up the creek by his house so he could make
his water lily pond) for his plein aire times. Obviously, when outdoors among nature, sunshine glare, bugs and so on,
the artist had to paint much faster and more efficiently than in the studio where all the wealth of supplies lay waiting.
Thus, the simplified palette for working outdoors on one's art on canvas was born, essentially an under-painting
with color notes, and named 'en plein aire' since the artists were out in the fresh/plain air to paint.
The style of the limited palette of colors caught on as a genre in and of itself by the early 20th century, usually
noted with the place such as 'French Plein Aire' paintings, or 'Early California Plein Aire' paintings. The peculiar
use of black, burnt sienna /brownish red, and yellow, blue and red hues in this more or less shorthand of painting has come
to have its own recognizable look, along with the dashing brushwork and color mixing on the spot.
Artists went on holiday to paint, enjoy nature, and record their fresh vision of nature for posterity. Then,
as now, the art lived in the mind of the beholder as a special communication of the artist, nature, and the viewer.
Lucky be the collector of such art in any era.
We are so fortunate today to have the ease of travel, materials, and time to make a holiday of nature and put it into a
work of art. Our community is most fortunate to have superb natural beauty all around us in every season.
So, if you would like to take a morning or an afternoon nature holiday 'en plein aire' yourself, I've assembled a
list of my favorite painting places, all within a short ride (by car, bicycle or walking) right here where we live.
I don't have a horse or buggy myself to be able to guesstimate the art convenience, but if I can hike it, I do like it.
Plein Aire vacations are for your inner artist’s wild side, and if you don't paint, you could start, or, just
collect your art at the next Monument Art Hop event! Here is a list of painting locations for artists in our beautiful
local Rockies area. These are my suggestions to get you started, and I welcome yours - I'd be glad to list them next
month.
Palmer Lake:
Palmer Lake trail head, the Gazebo at Palmer Lake; Estemere Mansion and grounds from outside the estate grounds,
Palmer Lake Library and grounds; Palmer Lake Town Hall; Greenland Trail area; Santa Fe trail;
Monument:
Santa Fe trail at the Beacon Lite and Second Street area; Monument Lake; the little parks dotted around Monument;
Dirty Woman Park;
Woodmoor:
Lake Woodmoor, Hidden Pond, Toboggan Hill, Twin Ponds,
Monument Library - the Duck Pond - great duck and wetlands sketching