Artists who painted representational images and taught traditional skills during the 1950s and 1960s were often dismissed by the New York art world that embraced Abstract Expressionism. A new exhibition at the Forbes Galleries in New York reminds us that we owe a debt to painters like Walter Stuempfig, who battled against the rising tide of Modernism.

Over the next few weeks, outdoor painters will be gathering in great locations around the country. Make sure to check out the events near you, including those in California, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Like many women of her age, Anna Richards Brewster benefitted from increasing opportunities for women in society but she was restrained by the male domination of the art world. As the daughter of the celebrated artist William Trost Richards (1833-1905), she was encouraged to pursue her interest in portraiture and landscape painting, and she found plein air painting to be a welcome relief from the dark academic paintings of the Victorian period.

Fairfield Porter was one of the few prominent representational painters exhibiting plein air paintings in galleries and museums in the 1950s -1970s, and he nurtured the careers many younger artists who were similarly interested in landscape and figure painting. His independence and influence were made possible by his wealth and his stature as a critic and scholar.

In the midst of a snow storm, Edward Willis Redfield would strap a 50” x 56” canvas to a tree, thin his paint with linseed oil to keep it from freezing, and use his gloved hands to paint a scene near his home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He firmly believed that paintings should be completed “in one go” and directly from nature.

Two exhibitions that include plein air paintings explore the ways artists capture the illusive appearance of bodies of water, one currently on view in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the other opening in Stockton, California in October, 2011.

Major museum exhibitions are again bringing attention to the intricate plein air drawings, watercolors, and oils created by William Trost Richards (1833-1905). Because of his early training as a commercial draftsman, his interests in literature, and his pantheistic belief that nature was “one of the appointed ways for the saving of men,” he created highly details works of art representing a “truth to nature.”