Home Painting Demonstrations & Art Tips

Painting Demonstrations & Art Tips

From color to composition, to dealing with the elements, learn from the community of plein air painters with these tips for painting outdoors!

From Lorraine Watry’s “Understanding Your Materials” Watercolor Live session

Happening Now – Watercolor Live!

This week we're seeing up-close-and-personal presentations during Watercolor Live, an online art conference unlike any other.
Plein air landscape painting critiques

Plein Air Society Starts Online Painting Critiques

"Artists that have trained their ability to look beyond the detail ... are able to make stronger, more captivating art."

Why This Works: Nailing the Values

In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and points out why they...

Why This Works: Leading the Viewer Into and Around the Scene

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, Chaya Schapiro.

Pursuing Artful Simplicity

Ernie Dollman’s work shows an aesthetic that appreciates simplicity. We asked him how he achieves success in boiling down scenes to their essence. Here’s...

Spotlight on PACE Faculty: George Van Hook and Hopping Coasts

New York State painter George Van Hook says tackling an unfamiliar landscape with a drastically different look can be easier if the artist adopts...

Why This Works: Lost Edges, Graduated Chroma for Depth

In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and points out why they...

Why This Works: Range of Values, Variety of Texture

- Jeanne Mackenzie reporting - In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and...

Filling a Need, and Seeing an Art Product Take Off

- Bob Bahr reporting, Editor PleinAir Today - Renee Lammers was spending more than $5 a week on sketchbooks, an amount she deemed too high....
Painting landscapes- John Hughes - OutdoorPainter.com

Understanding Your Subject as an Abstract Design

Before laying paint to canvas, it’s a good idea to assess your subject in terms of pure abstraction. John Hughes explains.

Encaustic en Plein Air — It Can Be Done

“Plein air” and “encaustics” are generally not found in the same sentence ... unless Michael Westcott is talking. Lead Image: All you need to...

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."
Rule of Thirds for painting landscapes - Michael Chesley Johnson, "Canyon Trails," 2018, oil, 12 x 24 in., Private collection, Plein air

Plein Air 101: The Rule of Thirds for Painting Landscapes

Learn how to determine the center of interest when painting landscapes by studying these three examples showing the Rule of Thirds.

Watercolor on Toned Paper

Many watercolorists love the medium because the white of the paper helps illuminate the colors in the pigment. But if you are working outside,...
What is Gouache

What Is Gouache?

In this free article, learn if gouache can be used like watercolor, how the two are similar, and what makes gouache unique.
Oil paintings by Cynthia Rosen | Tips for Painting Outdoors

Cynthia Rosen on Painting Outdoors: Advice for Artists

Captivated by her landscape paintings, I invited Cynthia Rosen to share with us some of her general tips for painting outdoors.
Jed Dorsey, "Two Houses," 2019, acrylic, 18 x 24 in., Collection the artist, Plein air

Dull Scene? Boost the Color! (free demo)

A step-by-step demo where Jed Dorsey explains how to bring harmony to a plein air landscape painting.
"Passing Fancy" by Nancie King Mertz

A Plein Air Painting Step-by-Step: Passing Fancy

Pastel artist Nancie King Mertz shares how she created a recent landscape with a unique composition in this step-by-step demonstration.
How to Travel Light When Painting Abroad - OutdoorPainter.com

How to Travel Light When Painting Abroad

Thomas Jefferson Kitts explains how to trim down your supplies and equipment, plan a painting trip, and return home with a collection of useful plein air paintings. Bonus: Learn from his step-by-step landscape painting demonstration!
Painting nocturnes in plein air

19 Tips for Painting Day-to-Night Nocturnes

Whether you paint exclusively en plein air or split your time between indoors and out, we hope the tips shared here entice you to try your first day-to-night scene or help you make your next one that much more believable.