“The convention far exceeded my expectations,” said many of the people who attended the 2nd Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo in Monterey, California. That was in part because the program was packed with painting demonstrations and illustrated presentations. Here are a few more highlights of the phenomenal event.
Peggi Kroll-Roberts and Michael Godfrey showed how important it is to focus on shapes when painting either landscapes or figures, while Dawn Whitelaw and Skip Whitcomb demonstrated how crucial it is for a plein air painter to edit the visual information artists receive on location. Other demonstrators showed how to work with either a limited or a full palette of colors, explained strategies for creating studio paintings from plein air studies, and showed techniques for suggesting detail without slaving over a painting.
Although Scott Shields’ lecture on the historic artists of the Monterey Peninsula came at the very end of the convention, the hall was nevertheless filled with people interested in knowing more about the great painters of the past — some well known and others new discoveries — who were inspired by the coastal communities of Carmel, Monterey, and Pacific Grove. Shields, the associate director and chief curator at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, California, also revealed news about exhibitions he is organizing for his museum.
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