PleinAir Magazine Apr/May 2015

Thomas Moran traveled west in 1871 to create the plein air oils and watercolors that helped establish his career and identify his work with the growing network of national parks. He became so closely associated with Yellowstone that he added the letter “Y” to his initials when signing paintings (TYM, for Thomas Yellowstone Moran). But before heading west, Moran explored the landscape of the Eastern United States, including pastoral scenes along the rivers that course their way through Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1864, Moran was apparently commissioned by George Frederick Tyler to paint this scene along the Juniata River, a major tributary of the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He added a plein air painter on a rock ledge above the river, presumably a self-portrait that shows Moran working on…

There is tremendous energy in the air. As you read this, we are gathering in Monterey, California, for the 4th Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo. It’s electric. Roughly 800 painters are coming together to learn, grow, and experience an event like no other. We’ll all be watching demos together in oil, watercolor, pastel, and acrylic. We’ll all be on the beaches together, painting the crashing waves on the iconic rocks with the beautiful cypress trees, in view of the colorful sunsets. Unique to this year will be the opening-night extravaganza where we’ll reveal our grand plan to take plein air to the world, to increase awareness of plein air painting to benefit all who are involved. Those at the convention who choose to participate will be given marching instructions and…

I often receive comments about PleinAir magazine through social media, letters to the editor, in personal conversation, e-mail messages, and surveys. Most comments are gracious and complimentary, but I want to address some of the more critical remarks, because the priority for all of us involved with the publication is to serve the reader in the best way possible. 1. “All the artwork looks alike.” I hear this comment about plein air paintings shown in exhibitions, festivals, and the magazine. I respond by asking people to look more carefully at the paintings on exhibit and illustrated within articles, such as this issue’s profiles of David Tanner, Eric Wiegardt, and Joe Anna Arnett. Those three profiles by themselves demonstrate that the magazine publishes articles on a wide variety of plein air approaches. That…

Contemporary artists who struggle for recognition and financial success might consider how much more difficult that process was before social media, websites, e-mail blasts, festivals, and videos. The most effective methods of promotion and sales were face-to-face communications by phone, by letter, and in person. Dong Kingman was a master at that communication, and he made friends with business executives, movie stars, television hosts, and wealthy collectors by serving their interests and being persistent. As a measure of his own celebrity status, Kingman was one of the few artists to have preferred seating in the Bar Room of the 21 Club in New York, a distinction reserved for the rich and famous. Kingman once invited this writer to lunch at Sardi’s restaurant, the famous Broadway watering hole, and during the conversation…

An increasing number of plein air festivals are including evening nocturne-painting competitions as a way of adding variety and intrigue, both for participating artists and for community members who are curious about what might happen. Because of that, many painters are figuring out how to represent a landscape that may have a completely different appearance after the sun sets. At that moment, the effects of sunlight are replaced by the illumination from spotlights, interior lamps, street lamps, and automobile headlights. Here is a sampling of images and approaches being pursued by artists around the country. M. STEPHEN DOHERTY is editor-in-chief of PleinAir magazine. Jill Hartley www.jillhartleystudio.com Jill Hartley paints primarily with a palette knife, which allows her to build up the surface quickly and capture the luminosity and texture of a dramatic sunset. The…

George Carlson: Sculpted Paintings This distinguished sculptor and painter has titled his convention lecture “Thinking Outside the Paint Box” to indicate that he’ll discuss issues intended to prompt artists to think differently about their approaches to painting. When one looks at George Carlson’s oils, one sees clear connections between the work he does on a two-dimensional surface and the three-dimensional bronze sculptures for which he is known internationally. The thick oil paint is manipulated with a brush, knife, and other tools as if it were malleable clay. The final image is a relief sculpture of textures and colors that have been layered, scraped, and carved to represent a landscape. It is an object with multiple dimensions, much as Carlson’s figurative sculptures are swirling, jagged, mounded bronze shapes that describe a Native…