Plein Air - The Concept Plein air is derived from a French expression 'en plein air,' which describes 'in the open air.
' A very familiar concept now, it is used to refer to painting outdoors.
The History Plein air was a revolutionary concept in 1800's with Barbizon School and Impressionism extending wings to grab natural light.
The Impressionists went out to the nature to investigate and capture the different effects of sunlight and shade on its different units.
With the introduction of portable painting kits around 1870s, Plein Air caught the upward swing.
The Details Plein air painting requires a selective study of the subject, its essence, and the relevance to its background scene.
The focus here should be on the 'actual' visual perception.
Therefore, what you 'see' has to be captured and not what you can imagine.
Before deciding on the scene, different locations are explored.
A final view is then selected to fix the painting set up there.
This whole process of painting and taking along a selection of colors for a particular scene may take an entire day.
For plein air work, an essentially far away, exotic scene is not required; instead, even a local garden with flowers or a local coffee shop scene can be used.
Although ideal spot must be in shade and out of wind, but the rule is flexible, as per the need.
You can use artificial covers such as umbrella for shade.
Make sure however, that it does not cast any color on the canvas.
While painting plein air, executing it with focus and peacefully becomes challenging at times, owing to the 'uncontrolled' outdoors.
Uninvited and unwanted inquisitive onlookers are often a problem.
Apart from their urge to see and discuss the ongoing work, they may go suggestive too.
This may be quite disruptive for an artist.
The only options existing in plein air cases are either to cover some peaceful outdoor or be politely non-responsive to the background chats.
Then, as the sun moves around in different directions, the scene being captured changes and the canvass has to be adjusted accordingly.
To keep things simple, major shapes should be covered first and then the details.
If the artists have the luxury of working slowly and can remain in the same spot for several days, then they at times even consider creating a series of canvas paintings to record the scene.
As the day moves on, the canvasses keep changing.
All said and done, a plein air painting needs to be started and finished outdoors only.
Conclusion Much of the work of French Impressionists, such as Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), were done outside.
Russian artists, like Vasily Polenov (1844-1927), Isaac Levitan (1860-1900), Konstantin Korovin (1861-1932), & Valentin Serov (1865-1911) also contributed immensely to the field.
Guy Rose (US, 1867-1925), Tom Thomson (Canada, 1877-1917), Robert William Wood (US, 1889-1979), Arthur Hill Gilbert (US, 1893-1970), John Gamble (US, 1922-2009), and The Canadian Group of Seven are some other artists that took plein air to its glorious height.
The style is still a hit.
' A very familiar concept now, it is used to refer to painting outdoors.
The History Plein air was a revolutionary concept in 1800's with Barbizon School and Impressionism extending wings to grab natural light.
The Impressionists went out to the nature to investigate and capture the different effects of sunlight and shade on its different units.
With the introduction of portable painting kits around 1870s, Plein Air caught the upward swing.
The Details Plein air painting requires a selective study of the subject, its essence, and the relevance to its background scene.
The focus here should be on the 'actual' visual perception.
Therefore, what you 'see' has to be captured and not what you can imagine.
Before deciding on the scene, different locations are explored.
A final view is then selected to fix the painting set up there.
This whole process of painting and taking along a selection of colors for a particular scene may take an entire day.
For plein air work, an essentially far away, exotic scene is not required; instead, even a local garden with flowers or a local coffee shop scene can be used.
Although ideal spot must be in shade and out of wind, but the rule is flexible, as per the need.
You can use artificial covers such as umbrella for shade.
Make sure however, that it does not cast any color on the canvas.
While painting plein air, executing it with focus and peacefully becomes challenging at times, owing to the 'uncontrolled' outdoors.
Uninvited and unwanted inquisitive onlookers are often a problem.
Apart from their urge to see and discuss the ongoing work, they may go suggestive too.
This may be quite disruptive for an artist.
The only options existing in plein air cases are either to cover some peaceful outdoor or be politely non-responsive to the background chats.
Then, as the sun moves around in different directions, the scene being captured changes and the canvass has to be adjusted accordingly.
To keep things simple, major shapes should be covered first and then the details.
If the artists have the luxury of working slowly and can remain in the same spot for several days, then they at times even consider creating a series of canvas paintings to record the scene.
As the day moves on, the canvasses keep changing.
All said and done, a plein air painting needs to be started and finished outdoors only.
Conclusion Much of the work of French Impressionists, such as Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), were done outside.
Russian artists, like Vasily Polenov (1844-1927), Isaac Levitan (1860-1900), Konstantin Korovin (1861-1932), & Valentin Serov (1865-1911) also contributed immensely to the field.
Guy Rose (US, 1867-1925), Tom Thomson (Canada, 1877-1917), Robert William Wood (US, 1889-1979), Arthur Hill Gilbert (US, 1893-1970), John Gamble (US, 1922-2009), and The Canadian Group of Seven are some other artists that took plein air to its glorious height.
The style is still a hit.