PleinAir Magazine December/January 2022-2023

Color can be representational, but it can also be expressive. Artists use it to inject feeling imaginatively into their work. The process is one of exaggerating and envisioning — re-imagining the qualities that make a thing worthy of painting in the first place. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) titled a senes of watery landscapes “nocturnes.” In doing so, he referenced music (Chopin composed a series of equally dreamy solo piano works under the same name) as well as mood. In color, the paintings stayed in the blue, green-blue, blue-gray family. Many think of them now as among the early forerunners of abstraction. Here, Whistler's choice of veiling the lagoon in swaths of greenblue-grays corresponds to how it felt to him. The painting expresses a feeling, a vision. He turns a relatively common…

E-mail: bericrhoads@gmail.com Phone: 512.607.6423 Facebook: /ericrhoads Twitter: @ericrhoads Why is it that most of our biggest cities have built major institutions filled with the works of artists? Why is it that recent publicity stunts to call attention to certain issues have targeted paintings in these institutions? I'm sure you have your own opinion. I think it's because what we do reaches people on an emotional level. Those paintings that have been selected for museums over the years are there because of their ability to tell a story or communicate a feeling or emotion. After a few days of cold, gray, cloudy weather, I recently went outside to enjoy the warm sunshine. I stretched my arms out as if to embrace nature itself. I get the same feeling when I hike over a ridge only to find a…

kelly@pleinairmagazine.com outdoorpainter.com Hearing cover artist Clyde Aspevig reminisce about Sunday car rides with his parents to “watch the wheat grow” in northern Montana put me in mind of my own family road trips when I was a kid. Back then, any traveling I did was for fun. Today, I'm often called upon to travel for work (which, let's be honest, most often means a lot of fun, too). With Millie, my 2-year-old coonhound, as my only companion most work days, those trips are a lifeline, I get to meet interesting new people, talk art with like-minded folks, learn about places I've never been before, and expand my understanding of the art community and this wonderful country. For this issue, I talked to a number of artists who share that appreciation for travel and the…

This October, nearly 100 plein air painters met in Maine's Acadia National Park for the Publisher's Invitational painting retreat known as Fall Color Week. “The event is designed for people who want to meet other artists, get better at painting through practice, and take the time they wouldn't on their own to do two or three paintings in a week,” says PleinAir Magazine publisher Eric Rhoads. “We started out as a group painting the rocky islands, pine trees, crashing waves, and old lighthouses along the coast,” Rhoads says. “Throughout the week, people went off in smaller groups to paint the Isle, Cadillac Mountain, or Bar Harbor. The nice thing about this location was that not only could we be inspired by beautiful color, but there was also a lot of character…

Most often associated with pictures of food or influencers on holiday, snarky comments, hashtag fads, and cancel culture, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube also allow artists to promote themselves and their work at virtually no cost other than the individual's time and energy. Posting content (images, comments, videos, blogs, retweets and likes, and links to one's own or others’ websites) presents opportunities to create a community that includes other artists, collectors, curators, dealers, and whomever else might share the same interests and tastes. Social media, according to Shannon Wilkinson, chief executive officer of the New York City-based Reputation Communications, is a career-building and career-sustaining tool. “First and foremost, it is about connecting and sharing,” she says. “It is not about endless self-promotion, although…

PLEIN AIR PORTFOLIO While the rest of the world sleeps, nocturne painters venture out to capture the unique atmosphere and quality of light found when the sun goes down. Although a host of challenges await, from fatigue to seeing values and shapes accurately, the 19 paintings featured here prove that rewards abound for those not afraid of the dark.…