Anatomy of an Award Winner: Mary Monk
No sun? No problem for Mary Monk. Overcast days at the Shadows-on-the-Teche Plein Air Competition did not deter the Louisiana oil painter.
Artist as Collector: Poppy Balser and ‘One Thing’
Nova Scotia artist Poppy Balser is partial to watercolor—her chosen medium—but she is also partial to demos she's seen painted in person. There's one other trait that attracts her to a piece she is considering for her collection.
Why This Works: Connect Your Darks
In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and points out why they succeed as painted images. This week, Eileen Guernsey Brown's "A Winter's Day."
Get Some Sugar With Charlie Hunter in Vermont
Pennsylvania artist Beth Bathe made her third annual pilgrimage to Vermont in mid-March to catch Charlie Hunter enjoying the sugaring season and great camaraderie in the field. She agreed to tell about her experience painting the last gasp of winter for PleinAir Today.
EXHIBITION: Ron Donoughe’s Allegheny Mtns Paintings, in PA
Through June 10, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, in Altoona, PA, is hosting "Labor and Landscape: 100 Paintings of the Allegheny Mountain Region by Ron Donoughe.
OPPORTUNITY: Bath County, VA in October
Thirty plein air painters will congregate in the Allegheny Mountains in October for the 5th Annual Bath County Plein Air Festival. To be one of them, prepare your application now.
Featured Artwork: Karen Ann Hitt
"Last Light- Forgotten Coast"
Oil on linen
30 x 40 in.
A reconnected inspiration: While painting a 6x8” Plein Air last year, two John Henry Twachtman paintings...
Giant New Zealand Mosquitoes?
A travelogue about the recent Publisher’s Invitational Painters’ Trip to New Zealand, by Eric Rhoads of PleinAir Magazine
Olmsted Winners Brave Tornado Warnings and Floods
Nature — and some miscreants who decided to set an interstate overpass on fire — seemed intent on discouraging the participants in the Olmsted Plein Air Invitational, but plein air painters are not so easily put off.
Others Complain. Plein Air Painters Paint
A maliciously set fire under an overpass of Interstate 85 in Atlanta caused its collapse, snarling traffic for days and prompting the governor of Georgia to declare a state of emergency. Painters in town for the Olmsted Plein Air event responded by — what else — painting the scene.
Artist as Collector: Thomas Dunlay and Staying on Track
A few pieces in Boston painter Thomas Dunlay’s collection remind him to stay the course.
Big Winners in the Big State of Texas
The Plein Air Southwest Salon recently announced its awards, chosen by Kenn Erroll Backhaus. Who won in the Lone Star State?
Tulips for Two Weisses
Robin Weiss makes a point to paint the tulip festival in the Skagit Valley in Washington, and he also makes a point to paint with his son, Maury. This year he got to do both at the same time.
Why This Works: Not Every Branch, Twig, and Leaf
In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and points out why they succeed as painted images. This week, Kathryn A. McMahon’s “Beaverdams Pond.”
Spotlight on PACE Faculty: Michelle Jung and the Bicoastal
Oil painter Michelle Jung spends half the year in Santa Cruz, California, and the other half in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The contrast between the two locales has sharpened her skills of observation and has given her important insight that she can share with attendees of the Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE), where she is on the faculty.
Homage? Humor? Artistic Statement? Yes.
Through a widely circulated online article in Colossal, plein air painters have been getting a giggle out of a German photographer’s take on painting outdoors, a series of photos that have been collected in a book that walks the line between homage and humor. And they are well-shot pictures.
OPPORTUNITY: Long Beach Island, in September
The Long Beach Island Foundation in New Jersey hosts an annual competition with a nice twist. They call it Plein Air Plus.
Parting Shot: Root, Root, Root for the Home Team … But First, Paint
There’s nothing like Opening Day of baseball. Or is there? Debbie Morines found a way to make it even better.
Sunday Coffee with Eric Rhoads: A New Approach to Selling Paintings at Art Shows
Yesterday I was the judge of a plein air show in a community near where I live. I rarely get the opportunity to judge...
How Watercolor Can Make You Lose Friends
Watercolor paintings can be exciting, abstract, tight, mysterious, pretty — and divisive among some folks. Just ask Daniel Marshall.