Our al fresco Summer Art Festival is an outdoor event for a Summer evening. World class art and artists for you to meet and greet. And, you can come any day, too.

You'll find us in Monument, Colorado, just west of I-25 at 2nd and Washington Streets. From I-25, exit on mile marker #161, curve around and at the end of the off ramp you are to make a left turn at Highway 105 and go due West onto 2nd street. Head West/toward the mountains, and just follow the art hop flags into Historic Monument and a grand time of art enjoyment. 

 

Monument Art Hop Begins!  5/17/07    5- 8 pm.  An evening of art hopping offers many favorites, with some brand new venues and new faces at old venues.  Drop in to the Gallery Center at Second Street and Beacon Lite Roads for the map of where to go, or just begin your stroll through Historic Monument right around there and see what's up for yourself.

 

 From Second Street and Beacon Lite area, wander the Gallery Center, then head less than a block west to the next hop stop at the Monte Verde Building.

 

The path of art, music and free flowing libations goes among venues on the most all the streets all the way between Second Street and Third Street.  There are so many good things to see, hear, and taste that chances are you'll spend a fair amount of time at each place that is open.

Located in Monument, west of I-25 at 2nd and Washington Streets.

 

 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