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!

Gilkerson’s 7 Crucial Plein Air Tips

South Carolina artist Mary Bentz Gilkerson paints arresting, vibrant plein air paintings with significant impasto. It takes a bold brush to do that. She...

Facebook Live Series: Michele Byrne “Palette Knife Painting” **FREE VIEWING**

In this broadcast, watch and learn from Michele Byrne as she shows you how adding a palette knife to your tool kit will allow you to paint in a new way that will make people leap up and take notice!

PleinAir Tip: Sketch Quickly

When painting outdoors, it is important that you capture this piece first.
How to start a plein air group

How to Start a Plein Air Group, Part 1

We often hear of successful plein air painting societies and associations, but what if you don’t live ...

Painting Wrecks in England

The trim lines of well-designed boats are catnip for painters, but the rusting hulks of wrecked ships have their appeal as well. Steven Alexander...
Plein air art advice - OutdoorPainter.com

How Plein Air Groups Get Museum Shows

An exhibition at a regional museum is a marketing coup — but how does it happen?

Painting Memories

Plein air paintings often capture more than the outward appearance of the landscape. For Mitch Kolbe, the series of paintings he created over the...
How to paint landscapes - Thomas Jefferson Kitts - OutdoorPainter.com

Impressionism, Sorolla, and the Color of Light

Seeing, understanding, and learning how to use color temperature in your work can elevate a so-so painting into a work of art.

What the Rocks Tell Us: Artist/Geologists in the American West

In this series of articles, Utah artist J. Brad Holt talks about what artists are seeing as they look at the landscape. Holt studied...

Why This Works: Diffused Light, Balance of Careful Rendering and Looseness

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

Painting 5”-x-7” Oils on Paper

New York painter Amy DiGi has some reasons for painting in oil on 5”-x-7” sheets of paper. And they all make sense. Lead Image:...

Travel Sketching: Tips for Keeping an Art Journal

From 2015 to 2018, Ivan Chow made trips to and around Istanbul, Turkey, sketching many scenes along the way. In this excerpt from his upcoming book, "Travel Sketching: Drawing Insights from Istanbul," he shares one of his favorite formats for drawing on location.
Artist Joseph McGurl painting en plein air

Joseph McGurl: You Know You’re An Artist When …

Joseph McGurl shares five secret practices that might seem off-the-wall to others, but have become completely normal for him.
Painting skies - Tomas Honz - OutdoorPainter.com

Accepting the Challenge of Painting Skies

Tomas Honz has an impressive body of work focusing on various sky conditions. It was not done without a fair amount of adversity.

Why This Works: Solid Tree in Foreground Offers Entry and Rest

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

Robert Bashford likes painting puddles. If you think about it, that’s brilliant. Why? Lead Image: “The Muddy Bikers,” by Robert Bashford, oil, 10 x...
Intuitive painting tools for artists

Free Mini-Lesson: Can You Use a Putty Knife for Painting?

Watch as Douglas Fryer shows you how to use an unconventional tool for painting, including how he "triple loads" it with color.

Suggesting Detail in 75 Minutes, Step by Step

Brazilian painter Marcelo Romani Borges de Araujo agreed to share with our readers some photos of a painting in its various stages, and a...

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...