| en plein air

| about | Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood (1885) by John Singer Sargent. Oil on canvas.

Whenever I've gone outdoors to paint there is this heightened perceptiveness afterwards. This being at one with everything - the air is fresher and the sky is glorious. It's a thrill to be alive - and being a painter makes you the luckiest of men. — Irwin Greenberg

To apply a dabble of watercolor or use your finger to smudge a bit of charcoal on a sheet of paper might seem like a simple enough assignment, but doing those tasks outdoors — where the fresh air, sunshine, and insects abound — can be an altogether different experience. Likewise, composing a drawing using one of the tried-and-true techniques, such as implementing the rule of thirds or even simply aiming to create a convincing foreground, middle ground, and background proves to be a challenging task when the subject ahead of you isn't confined to a rectangular photograph or computer screen, and is instead only limited by your own eyesight and the vast horizon before you.

And yet, this is how artists have painted for hundreds of years, en plein air. Timeless, celebrated plein air paintings were created by absurdly talented plein air artists, such as Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, John Constable, Pierre-Auguste Renior, and Winslow Homer. Even after photographs were readily available, and technology made capturing an idyllic scene both accessible and affordable, artists have continued to flock to the great outdoors to experience something enigmatic about the unbridled joy that comes from applying an art medium to a substrate al fresco.

I suspect the appeal is multi-faceted; fresh air and sunshine usually go a long way to lift a person’s spirit and bring clarity and stillness…the meditative state of mind required to produce creative work. But it also serves to provide ample light, brilliant colors, and space to stretch — both physically and mentally. And ultimately, being surrounded by nature is liberating. The natural world yields the perfect environment to play and experiment, and if your creation is truly awful, you can blame it on a gust of wind or the harsh direction of the revolving sun — and those factors are a reasonable excuse when painting out in the elements.

Among famous traitors of history one might mention the weather. —Ilka Chase

| why plein air?

When determining which direction we wanted our art programming to go this year, giving consideration to a building that is under construction, a pandemic that is particularly prevalent indoors, and the fact that we live in a town that rightfully celebrates its rich natural beauty, Director Dan Butner realized that plein air painting was a perfect fit.

When we commune with nature or create, we're forced to be present. When we combine the two, it somehow amplifies both. Plein Air painting forces us to slow down and distill what we see and feel. It teaches us to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. — Dan Butner

Our upcoming programming kicks off in the month of April with our first excursion to Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap, North Carolina, then provides participants access to the the Historic Kapps Mill Estate in May, private early entrance to the breathtaking Piccione Vineyards in June, and finally finishes with a morning spent on top of the world (or so it seems) at Pilot Mountain State Park in July. All of the excursions are set for morning hours to best avoid insect bites and sunburns, although bringing your own hiking and art supplies is required. We’ll greet you with fresh coffee and a supportive creative community. Tickets are $5 — I’ve linked them below for your convenience.

| mini ticket booth

| everyone is welcome — really

If you’d like to participate in our group but have never so much as sketched a stick tree outdoors, please feel free to join us for a class on the subject. We’re teaching them indoors (we’ve affectionately termed this un plein air) but a ticket to an upcoming outdoor excursion of your choice is included in the class fee. The whole idea is to build a community of open air art enthusiasts — you don’t need to know exactly what you’re doing before you join in, but you might benefit from some practical tips from a couple of artists who have newly discovered the joys and challenges of plein air painting themselves.

| and finally, a festival

To wrap up a year of plein air programming, we’re celebrating with a festival in the fall. This three-day occasion during the month of October will draw artists to our area and offers events open to the general public as well as excursions that are exclusive to registered art participants.

We’ll highlight the details of the festival in a later article, but if you’re eager to learn more and want to plan ahead or get in early on the registration, please click on any of the images below to open our festival page.

As always, we can’t wait for you to join us as we discover this natural world around us and aim to capture our wonder on canvas.

Sydney Sieviec, Assistant Director

My oils are finished alla prima in the field... decorated with suicidal bugs... my shirt soaked in sweat. This is authentic 'guerrilla' painting, backpacking everything into remote locations... enraptured there until the light fails. — Alan Craig