Revised January, 2008

Mt Troy Hill Top Houses

St. Nicholas, 1st Croatian Church USA

Pittsburgh from Washington'sLanding

Hilltop Homes Mt. Troy

The Lightouse on Presque Isle, Lake Erie, PA. 11" x 14", Oil on baord, Artist Ref. No. M124

Moraine State Park, 14" x 18", Oil on canvas. Artist Ref. No. M123

The Walter's Farm, 12" x 12", Oil. Artist ref. no. 1137

The Corn Fields, 20" x 16" Oil. Artist ref. no. 1136

The Bean Field, Scott Town Farms, 12" x 12" Oil. Artist ref. no. 1139

The Green Barn-Carnegie, PA, 12" x 12", Oil. Artist ref. no. 1138.

Millvale Rooftops, Oil, 11" x 14". Artist ref. no. 1127

Art Is My Passion

A Brief History of Plein Air Painting



"In the open air" is the translation for the French term en plein air. Plein, and adjective meaning full, whole, filled or replete, gives us a better understanding of the intent of this term.



To be en plein air is not merely to be outside, but to be experiencing with all ones senses the whole of the great outdoors!



To draw or paint en plein air is a relatively recent development in art history and some suggest it began with the great English landscape artist John Constable (1776-1837). He believed nature held all the truth and landscape paintings. to be truthful, must be based on direct observation. Constable urged fellow artists to follow his lead, forget about techniques and formulas and move out of the studio to see their subject with their own eyes. Although this artist, who indeed is known for the atmospheric quality of this work, began with oil sketches from nature, the paintings were finished in the studio.



Around this same time in the small French village of Barbizon, there were a group of artists who rebelled against the effects of the Industrial Revolution on city life. They gathered in the countryside setting to produce painting that romanticized the dignity of manual farm labor, the simple way of peasant life and the idyllic qualities of the bucolic setting.



Artist, like Millet (1841-1875), took their sketchbooks to the fields to personally record the peasants, activities in the rural landscape. Like Constable, their sketches served as the basis for the finished works that were completed in the studio.



Corot (1796-1875), with ties to the Barbizon painters, was perhaps the first to actually begin and complete his paintings en plein air. The finest works of this landscape artist are said to be his early small canvasses that were executed on location in an hour or two. These paintings, like photography, were Corot's way of recording the truth and the immediacy of the moment in this travels.



Trusting what is being seen at a particular point in time is the underlying principal of the French Impressionists theory that "what is seen is not form, but light on form". Due to the somewhat blurred quality of the en plein air paintings of Manet (1832-1883), Monet (1840-1926) and the other Impressionists, critics at first considered them unfinished. Later, however, this characteristic became the accepted nor for a "truthful, painting generated through the outdoor experience."



The influence of the Impressionists soon reached the United States where artists of the day became caught up in the movement with some even traveling to France to study the Monet and others. In America colonies of plein air painters began to spring up in the locales where the light was best, notably on the East and West coasts and in the Southwest.



William Meritt Chase (1849-1916) opened one of the first outdoor painting schools in the America on Long Island in 1895. Enthusiasm for painting directly from nature reached its peak in California in the early 1900's and produced such greats as Guy Rose (1867-1925) and Edgar Payne (1883-1947). "Composition of the Outdoo" by Payne is still considered by many to be the definitive instruction book for the plein air painter.



Today's market for collecting works of the early American plein air artists, particularly those who painted California and the Southwest, is strong and growing. This has sparked a revival in painting outdoors that is being cultivated by artists groups across the country. They sponsor plein air art shows and "paint-outs" at incredible scenic locations here and abroad. Like the artists before them, most don't complete their works outside, but to be considered plein air, the essentials of the works are completed before the finishing touches are added at the studio.