PleinAir Magazine October/November 2022

Born on a farm near Dunavant, Kansas, John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) believed that art should appeal to the common man. Rejecting both European academicism and modernism, he focused his work on familiar scenes of the American Midwest. In this study for the second of two oil-and-tempera murals originally installed at the Department of the Interior building in Washington D.C., Curry capitalized on his standard palette — reds for Oklahoma’s dust and soil, gold for sunlight, and green for faroff fields of grain. Of the scene, he said, “Building the barbed wire fences closed forever the open range, and behind these fences developed a different economic and social order.” Storytelling landscapes like this one solidified Curry’s place alongside fellow masters Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Grant Wood (1891-1942) in the annals of American…

Growing up in the small town of Fort Wayne, Indiana, I didn’t have much exposure to art until my mom started taking painting lessons at the local artists’ league. I would sit and watch her, often painting along. Although we had a small, insignificant (at the time) art museum, I don’t recall ever going. It wasn’t until we visited the Frick Collection during our family trip to the 1965 World’s Fair in New York that I saw great art en masse. At 11, I was taken with a giant painting of pirates sword fighting on a ship; it was my first realization that I could like this art thing. Once I got my driver’s license, I visited an art gallery downtown, but it wasn’t until I was about 25 that I…

Editor-in-Chief kelly@pleinairmagazine.com outdoorpainter.com facebook.com/pleinairmagazine twitter.com/pleinairmag Instagram.com/pleinairmag Sharing a passion brings people together. Plein air painters and collectors know this as well as anyone. For proof, look no further than the robust and growing number of plein air events and workshops around the country. Artists find inspiration in the landscape and in one another’s work; art lovers share their appreciation for the paintings by engaging with the artists and buying pieces to take home. There’s an exchange of a shared interest in nature and the landscape, of ideas and new ways of looking at the world, of the creative spirit. And that exchange draws us closer. PleinAir Magazine publisher Eric Rhoads calls it “finding your tribe.” Sadly, I learned that we lost one of our tribe shortly before this issue went to press. Margi Lucena, whose work I was…

1. Childe Hassam, one of the leading American Impressionists, captured contemporary life in Chicago, Illinois in his cityscape “World’s Fair, Chicago (1893-94)”, Choosing to minimize his connection to France, he claimed he was influenced by “plein air prototypes of nineteenth century English painters.” 2. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, George Bellows was an American Realist Painter who was the “most acclaimed American artist of his generation” according to the Columbus Museum of Art. In December 1999, his 1910 painting “Polo Crowd” sold for $27.5 million dollars to billionaire Bill Gates. 3. A small grasshopper was found embedded in the thick paint of one of Van Gogh’s masterpieces “Olive Trees” while conducting research for a catalog of the French painting collection at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. 4. Born…

There is no magic formula for becoming a successful artist, but those who do achieve success — defined here as the ability to support oneself through sales of one’s artwork — tend to have certain qualities in common. They have an understanding of their audience and the market, know how to bring attention to their art, and know how to negotiate a sale. They are aware of how the law pertains to the creation and sale of art. They are not tongue-tied when setting up a consignment arrangement with a gallery owner, and do not resort to art school jargon when discussing their artwork with prospective buyers. Generally, the mastery of those (and perhaps a few other) art business skills separates the professional from the wannabe. Books on the subject and…

In a 2019 interview with Oliver Enwonwu, Dean Mitchell said, “My mother had warned me that a Black man could not possibly make a living selling pictures in America. I questioned her concerns until my first encounter at the museum, walking through room after room and not seeing any image that looked like me. They did not value the Black artist’s contributions to the art world. This is a psychological castration. In spite of it, artists of color continue to create and offer hope for the next generation.”…