Plein Air Painting

Plein-air painting is a fancy term for painting directly outdoors. This is a tradition that started some time ago with painters like Monet. What allowed these early painters to venture outdoors was the invention of tubes to keep their paint in. The bug for plein-air painting really bit me after attending the 2012 Door County Plein-air Festival. Below are some of my earliest "posts" on my plein-air experience. Also, I have two other blogs which I post on some regularity. The links for those blogs are below:


My plein-air blog

Urban Sketchers Winnipeg Blog



Older "Posts" on Plein-air Painting Experiences

I have recently fallen in love with plein-air painting. Prior to this summer, I had sketched outdoors but seldom taken the extra step to set up an easel and paint. I got the plein-air bug after spending my vacation at the Door County Plein-Air Festival in Wisconsin. On the way home from vacation, I made a stop at one of my favorite artstores; Wet Paint in St. Paul Minnesota, and purchased a pochade box and oil paints. Below is a sampling of paintings that I have created in oil. All except where noted were painted on Guerilla Painter carton panels which are resin impregnated card panels. They are somewhat absorbent and create a very soft look due to the abosrbency of the panel.

September 7, 2012

Dappled Sunlight in Assiniboine Park, 6" x 8", Oil

This painting was done in Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg. I was taken with the strong pattern of sunlight and shadow under the trees. I had intended to try and paint the Lyric Theatre but the attraction to this pattern said this is the one!

Blue Chair in the Garden, 6" x 8", Oil

This painting of a blue chair with a profusion of red geraniums splilling out of a pot was painted in the yard of the Winnipeg Free Press Garden columnist. One of our plein-air painting group arranged for us to paint in this garden one Monday morning this summer. The garden was absolutely exquisite; filled with skillfully designed vignettes everywhere. This gardener has the "eye of an artist".

Sunflower Field No. 1, 6" x 8", Oil

Who doesn't love sunflowers ... I desparately wanted to paint a sunflower field so my husband and I drove all the way to Rose Isle Manitoba where I set up my easel in the ditch and painted this field. This was early enough in the season that the flowers were all standing up and displaying their bright yellow petals.

Sunflower Field No. 2, 11" x 14", Oil

I'm still feeling like I want to explore sunflowers so my daughter Jackie and I painted a sunflower field in Transcona next to the perimeter highway. Her older sister Candace joined us for the afternoon and quietly fixed my knitting while we painted. This painting shows the sunflowers at a diferent stage. The backdrop was a field of drooping, mostly yellow and drying flowers. There were only a few stray plants on the edge of the field that were still displaying bright yellow petals. The weather was hot and sunny, but luckily I was shaded by my umbrella mounted to my tripod. This was a very satisfying painting session which lasted approximately 90 minutes. This painting was done on a canvas board, approximately 10.5 inches by 13.5 inches and the board was prepared with an acrylic underpainting of transparent red oxide.

King's Park, 6" x 8", Oil

King's Park is a fairly large park near the University of Manitoba. One of the appealing subjects in the park is this small pagoda; the red of the pagoda against the green backdrop is a painter's delight.

Sketching at Thompsonite Beach Resort

This photo is of me sketching at the Thompsonite Beach Resort near Grand Marais, MN. This was taken on our 2008 vacation.