PLEIN AIR HERITAGE
A group of Indiana plein air painters who came to be known as the Richmond Group Artists gained prominence at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries as their town in east central Indiana became a center for the arts. What began as a sketching group in 1870 blossomed into a plein air organization, and subsequently the Richmond Art Association. A new book about those painters, The Richmond Group Artists (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN), was recently published after years of research by its author, Richmond Art Museum Director Shaun Thomas Dingswerth (www.richmondartmuseum.org). As revealed in the photograph and painting shown here, members of the Richmond Group often camped in scenic wooded areas where they could paint under the shelter of tents, canopies, and umbrellas.…