PleinAir Magazine Jun/Jul 2017

As an early American Impressionist, a prolific printmaker and painter, and a skillful marketer of his work, Childe Hassam enjoyed critical and financial success until late in his career. By the time he created this watercolor self-portrait en plein air, however, the art market had passed him by and embraced avant-garde movements. At this stage in his life, Hassam, who was an illustrator before training as a fine artist in Paris, noted the special significance of works on paper, remarking, “I began my career in the graphic arts, and I am ending it in the graphic arts.” The artist shows himself on the boardwalk at the Maidstone Beach Club in East Hampton, New York, one of his favorite places for plein air painting. His high regard for the setting is reflected…

It’s an old story: An enthusiastic teen or college student says to Mom and Dad, “I want to be an artist.” And most of those concerned parents say something like, “Honey, you’re picking a difficult path. It’s impossible to make a living as an artist. You really need to pursue something else.” Perhaps you’ve heard similar discouraging words yourself from your own family members. If not, you’ve probably encountered artists who have lived that story and were pushed in a different direction. Sadly, there is an all-but-universal belief that one cannot make a good living as an artist and that the life of an artist is filled with difficulty. It’s probably rooted in the story of Van Gogh. In fact, many artists in history have been wealthy or at least well-to-do as…

Often when I interview artists over the phone for profile articles in PleinAir, they boast about their recent achievements. I assume they want me to write about them as confident, skillful, and celebrated plein air painters. I have no problem listening to them brag because I understand they want to present themselves to subscribers, collectors, students, and friends in the best possible light. I also know the artists may have only one opportunity to be featured in a national art magazine. I thought about this recently when I was reviewing the online display of unsold paintings created during the recent Olmsted Plein Air Invitational in Atlanta. I was struck by the fact that some of the top, nationally known artists who participated in the event created a bunch of mediocre paintings…

An Artist Sketching Claude Lorrain ca. 1640, graphite and brown ink on paper, 8 1/2 x 12 3/4 in. Collection the British Museum, London The Judgment of Paris Claude Lorrain (French, 1604/1605-1682) 1645-1646, oil on canvas, 44 3/16 x 58 7/8 in. Collection National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund 1969.1.1 Looking at this outdoor sketch from the vantage point of contemporary plein air painting, it has the appearance of a high-contrast preparatory sketch that might be used to develop a larger oil painting. The simplified design, strong diagonal thrust, and high-contrast values are exactly what one would want in a plan for a successful studio painting. To verify that, one only needs to consider the large allegorical painting The Judgment of Paris, a work typical of those that earned Claude Lorrain his…

Bright Morning, Timberline Falls Kathleen B. Hudson 2016, oil on linen panel, 18 x 14 in. Private collection Grand Prize winner in the PleinAir Salon On Monday April 24, 2017 at the Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE) in San Diego, Kentucky painter Kathleen B. Hudson suddenly found herself $15,000 richer. The oil painter won the Grand Prize in the PleinAir Salon. Hudson won for her painting Bright Morning, Timberline Falls. The artist took a moment to describe the painting experience that informed the plein air piece. “This particular painting was certainly high-risk, high-reward — it was the most hard-fought of my career because it required a nearly 10- mile round-trip hike to Timberline Falls during the Plein Air Rockies event last year,” says Hudson. “I devoted plenty of time to a preliminary thumbnail sketch so I…

Sunny Day, Petaluma Robin Purcell 2017, watercolor, 12 x 12 in. Collection the artist Plein air The Ladies and the 1953 Golden Jubilee Karen Ann Hitt 2017, oil, 20 x 24 in. Collection the artist Plein air “One of my favorite aspects of plein air painting is capturing the history of a location,” says Florida artist Karen Ann Hitt. “The ‘ladies’ depicted in this painting are the last two surviving mares from the horse line, who are about 17 and 20 years old, respectively. The person feeding them is the only daughter in the family that has owned the farm through good times and bad. Maintaining the barn and homestead is still the main focus of the surviving family members." Late Summer Dreams M. Camille Day 2016, oil on paper, 11 x 14 in. Collection the artist Studio Sunrise on the Farm Kelli Folsom 2017, oil on panel,…