Centerville, Texas
Plein Aire is a fancy French term for “Painting on Location”. I am sure that most people are familiar with the meaning, but not everyone is. So I have started labeling my work with “Painting on Location. I love to paint outdoors when the weather is perfect. Ha!Ha!, so in Texas that is not a very big span of time. I need to start pushing myself to paint outdoors even when the weather is not perfect.
I am keenly aware that if there is nothing special to the viewer of a painting that just because the painting was done on location and saying “well this a special painting, it is a Plein Aire!” is not going to make it any more special or make the viewer love the work. The painting, regardless of its origin, has to be good, interesting, worthy of praise, and speak to the viewer. The viewer very likely doesn’t care if you created the painting in the studio or on location. The viewer wants to enjoy the painting…end of story.
When you paint of location, you have to put up with the weather: hot, cold, windy, and changing sunlight. You also have to put up with bees, (they love linseed oil), flies, snakes, etc. You have to lug all of your supplies ( easels, palette, brushes, solvent, rags. and the right paints to the location, and god forbid if you forget something). You become resourceful if you forget something. The last thing that you want to do is waste the effort of the day.
Once you and all of your paraphernalia get to the perfect spot, you have to decide how to paint what you think that you want to paint. The scene is perfect, beautiful and now all you have to do is figure out how to ignore half of the data in front of you. You can easily get overwhelmed by the expanse of the vista in front of you. Simplifying and focusing on what the part(s) of the scene will tell your story. This is probably harder to do than dealing with wind, sun, bees ands snakes!
So why in heavens name would an artist go through all of this to paint a plein aire? Because–Painting on location provides the artist with a rich a vibrant scene that is not captured in a photograph. It is thrilling to meld with nature in order to interpret the scene before you. The end result ” should” be better than trying to produce the same scene from a photographic image in the studio. Painting on location is a skill that in the end will make the artist perform at a higher level. As we all know practice is necessary to improve any skill and that is certainly the case with plein aire painting. Plein Aire studies also provide a richer replacement of reference photos. Case in point, I really like the study above and am thinking about adding some more interest to the foreground. I will get back to you on that!
As I have said in past blogs, when I went to Art School back in the 60’s, we did not have reference photos, everything we did was Plein Aire. We were efficient and every time we went out to paint, we improved our skill. I cherish that time in my painting career.
I hope that you are enjoying this beautiful fall season. Have a wonderful holiday with your family. Love to all of you. Let me hear from you.
tylerstudio1201@gmail.com
409-7718371
www.tylerstudio.org
