Note: If you already think that plein air painting is painting a scene in the outdoors while outdoors, then you can skip this post. At first look, it would seem that the answer to the question “What is plein air?” would be as obvious as the answer to the question “What is cooking?” but it is not so obvious to everyone. In fact, there seems to be some confusion about it. But let’s put the plein air question aside for a moment and ask “what is cooking?” and see if there is a clue in that question to the truth […]
The Mindful Masters of Plum Village
In Buddhism, the most important practice is mindfulness, a continuous awareness of the Eightfold Path. Mindfulness has taken on a more secular meaning in modern times: awareness of the moment itself. This is a difficult thing for us monkey-minded creatures. In the modern practice of mindfulness, we are to constantly remind ourselves to be aware of the world around us, of our breath, of the birds singing, the grass growing, the cars grumbling by on the frantic streets, and even the taste of the food we eat. Imagine being aware of our dinner as we eat it. It’s almost laughable. […]
Why the Plein Air Movement is Dead, Part One
Original Vision “Sometimes people want to know if the paintings are for sale. They are not. And I don’t have any plans to sell or exhibit or take commissions…” —Spring 2001, from a note to my father about recent plein air work Background First If this essay were a painting that I was about to paint on location, I would wash the canvas with a thin layer of burnt sienna, or yellow ochre, or a neutral light gray. Not all artists do this, but I find that when a bit of the canvas shows through it creates an overall tone […]
Why the Plein Air Movement is Dead, Part Two
Savage Grace “I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” —Vincent Van Gogh Decisions One, abandon all work in anything but oils. Two, spend at least two years sketching the landscape before attempting to paint it. Three, move to California. After reading an article, in the early 90s, about something called “plein air”, and deciding that plein air was the direction I would take, these were the three decisions I made…and kept. Embodied in those two words, plein air, I saw artistic challenge, physical, mental, and spiritual challenge, and a fiercely […]
Why the Plein Air Movement is Dead, Part Three
The Heart of the Matter “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” —Steve Jobs The Calm Everyone understands the appeal of seeing familiar places in old paintings or photos. Think back on the early California paintings of Monterey, for example; who does not enjoy E. Charlton Fortune’s views of the harbor, for example, as it was then? In the same way that we find old photos of places fascinating because […]
Plein Error
To wit, the artist fails to honor the plein air canvas with grace and so is forced to redeem himself in the studio… As I packed up my gear at the studio and gave one look over my shoulder at the vase of sunflowers I had bought the day before, intending to paint them today, I thought for a second that I heard a little voice say “What about us? You don’t love us!” I shook it off, locked up, and went downstairs to pack the bike up for some plein air painting. However, to err is human. Excuse me […]
Colorful Kayaks and Snow Blindness
In which, seduced by the color of pretty little boats, the artist becomes the victim of snow blindness and so can’t paint worth a damn. That’s my excuse. Loading up the bike and speeding north along the bike path from Pacific Grove to Monterey harbor and just beyond Pier 2 to Del Monte Beach, the brilliant colors of this sunny day buoyed my mood. The day before, on the way back from the dunes (see Monterey, a Mediterranean View) I had seen how happy and vivid Del Monte Beach could be on a sun-filled day. The nearly white sand threw […]
Plein Air Easton 2009
Below is the entire Plein Air Easton 2009 blog by Robert Lewis in chronological order. Contents Day One: In Training Intending to Paint Boats, I Got Distracted Fear of Boats Escape from the Fog Having My Way PAIN-ting Lessons Desiderata Lucidity, Thucydides, Lucidity Magical Helpers Day One at Plein Air Easton Let Nothing Stop You Fixed on a Star Give It Everything You’ve Got Changing the Palette [TOP] Day One: In Training You’d think that getting your painting supplies to Maryland would be simple. And it is, if you are willing to spend, spend, spend!! I checked the American Airlines […]
Changing the Palette
I know this feeling and I don’t like it. It’s the same feeling I get whenever I arrive home after weeks in some exotic land. It was there when I returned from the intense color and sweat of Tahiti. It’s ungloved hand slapped me when I came back to the warmth from the blue ice of Antarctica , and the wild landscape of Iceland . In Paris , it lurked behind every cafe table, every pretty smile, every bright and sunny memory-to-be, awaiting my return to America before it struck with its chill accuracy. As a teen, it was there […]
Give It Everything You’ve Got
” No one understands that you have given everything. You must give more.“ — Antonio Porchia , Voces , 1943 The Quick Draw is an event loved and hated by an artist. On the one hand, it only lasts two hours and often your painting sells. On the other, you only have two hours to paint a painting that is worthy of being purchased. On top of that add in some hot asphalt, direct sun, temps in the 90s, humidity, and hundreds of onlookers. I learned much from my work this week and one thing was clear, people in a […]