PleinAir Magazine Aug/Sep 2017

Kate Freeman Clark (1875-1957) It would be encouraging to find that talented artists are always recognized and the best painters are always able to exhibit and sell their pictures. The harsh reality is that a fluctuating economy, changing markets, and shifting tastes can work against the success of even the most gifted artists. Add personal misfortunate to the factors working against an artist, and it’s understandable how great painters fade into the dust of history. Kate Freeman Clark was one of those promising artists who ended her art career after personal and market challenges. In the 1890s, she was one of the best students in the classes William Merritt Chase taught at the Art Students League of New York and at his Shinnecock summer art school on Long Island, New York, and…

You are a part of an art movement that is like no other in history. I’m not joking, I’m not blowing smoke, and I’m not trying to hype you. You see, the plein air movement of painting (and collecting) is unlike any time in history. We know from historical records that past movements related to plein air painting were small groups, like the the 19th-century Dutch Impressionists, the Barbizon School, or others. But this is different. When I started PleinAir, I noted that there seemed to be a lot of people interested in this movement, but, in fact, it was still pretty small and there were only a handful of events — probably just a couple of hundred people. But today the movement is experiencing massive growth, and there are literally hundreds of…

If you’ve been working outdoors for a number of years, you know the experience of picking up an older painting and immediately recalling where you were when you painted it, who you were painting alongside, and whether it was warm or cool out. After studying a location for two hours or more and transcribing your perceptions with paint, you’ll likely have a total recollection of that place and time. I recently did five paintings that I’m certain will become valuable reminders of a special plein air meeting in Annapolis, Maryland. A college roommate and I arranged to meet, with our families, after 30 years of not being together. Richard had developed a successful career as a studio painter in Australia and the United States, but he was interested in exploring plein…

The American artist Theodore Robinson had a celebrated, successful career as a painter, teacher, and school founder, and was a friend of Claude Monet and one of the first American Impressionists. By the spring of 1884, he had earned enough money to make Paris his home base, and in 1887 he began the first of many sojourns to Giverny, where he painted alongside Monet. As this photograph shows, Robinson was an active plein air painter who was strongly influenced by European artists. He made a number of trips back to New York, where he maintained friendships with John Henry Twachtman (1853- 1902) and J. Alden Weir (1852-1919), and through them he served as a conduit for the dissemination of Impressionist precepts in the United States. To supplement his income, Robinson taught art…

An increasing number of nocturnal paintings are being included in plein air competitions, in part because the artists enjoy the challenge of working in the dark and in part because the novelty attracts patrons to plein air festivals. Observers who become buyers are attracted to the painted records of the mysterious and fascinating play of lights. Here is how several plein air painters handled that challenge. “Nocturnes are a bit more challenging,” says Californian Beverly Bruntz. “As with any painting, the unexpected usually happens, but that’s what make plein air painting so fun. When painting at dusk or during the night, I prepare a few things ahead of time, like premixing some dark blues, greens, and purples. I usually start developing the initial composition/block-in while at the site when there is…

Artists like to make the excuse that “People in this town just don’t buy art.” Their claim is that great artwork sells only in major cities, where enough people have money, taste, and collecting habits. And while it is true that the big-name art collectors who pay millions for a single work of art patronize major galleries and auction houses in New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo, it is also true that painters living in small, rural towns have strong followings among buyers in their region, especially if the artists market themselves well in retail galleries, over the Internet, and during plein air festivals. Mississippi painter Wyatt Waters is one such artist, who never assumed that collectors would stampede to his studio door. Quite the opposite. Believing that his art (and…