The 5th Annual Plein Air Live wrapped up after several days of camaraderie, workshops, paint-along sessions, and learning from the masters. Today’s demos featured Amit Kapoor (who’s leading a watercolor pre-convention workshop at the Plein Air Convention this year), Beth Bathe, Kimball Geisler, Charlie Hunter, and Kevin Macpherson. Here’s a recap of the fun and amazing last day in case you missed it!
Workshop Highlights from Day 3 of Plein Air Live
Joining us all the way from New Dehli, India, watercolorist Amit Kapoor led a session that focused on how to capture light and shadow en plein air. He also noted the importance of proportion and alignment: “Perspective gives more depth, volume, and distance in your paintings.”
“It’s a lot of dripping, a lot of carving, and a lot of different ways to paint,” said Beth Bathe in her demo using water-mixable oils. She painted a boat scene from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Maryland.
Working on a 10 x 12-inch panel on a cloudy day, Kimball Geisler painted a scene with changing light, and chose to create a scene with the light in the foreground of his landscape.
Charlie Hunter gave a lesson from his studio, basing his demo painting on a 2020 sketch of Bellows Falls, Vermont. He said the challenge for this work is to render all of the storefronts on the right side to some degree of correctness, without trying to create it in complete detail, but rather to give the feeling of the scene.
Kevin Macpherson filmed his Plein Air Live demo in December – a magical time to capture the beauty of a frozen pond surrounded by Aspens to show his process for painting a landscape on location.
The next Plein Air Live takes place in 2025, but you don’t have to wait that long to join many of your fellow painters, including today’s best teachers. Join us in person at the Plein Air Convention & Expo in the Great Smoky Mountains, May 20-24, 2024. Joe Paquet (oil), Amit Kapoor (watercolor), and Aaron Schuerr (pastel) are leading the pre-convention workshops. There are multiple stages and over 80 instructors. Will you be there?
