The purpose of going to any workshop is to get away from the daily routine, find new ideas, meet new people, go to a new or different place and come home refreshed, inspired and eager to resume life again. That truly happens when the teacher is sensitive to the needs of each workshop participant, gives demonstrations appropriate to the needs of the class and the participant is open-minded and willing to change.
The artist who paints en plein air, a French term meaning "open air", is one who takes his/her easel to a location and paints some of the scenery. One question arises: Why subject oneself to sunburn, bug bites and the whims of nature when it would be easier to take a photo and sit in a comfortable studio and create the painting? It would, but the painting will not have the energy and feeling of one created on site. Photos are great references, but do not show the depth of field that one can see when out of doors.
Most plein air artists use oils for their paintings, although a few use watercolors and acrylics and even fewer use pastels. We will limit our discussion here to oil painters. If the artist prefers to use a small support, say 4" x 6" to 11" x 14", he/she often uses a Pochade box. This is a small box which contains paint, an area with adjustable clips which holds the support (usually a canvas board or other board), palette, brushes, and a place to store the wet painting during transportation. Pochade boxes come in various sizes and sit on an adjustable tripod. They are light but relatively expensive. The artist might also bring another bag for tripod, paper towels, apron, brush cleaner and a trash bag.
If the artist uses larger supports, she will generally use canvas and a French easel. Inside this easel is room for paints, brushes, brush cleaner, palette, paper towels, trash bag and apron. It has three legs that open, are adjustable, and support the easel for the standing or sitting user. It will also carry the wet painting even if it is very large. A French easel is heavy when loaded with supplies, but relatively inexpensive.
To transport your paintings back home if you paint small, separate cardboard boxes are available for transporting wet paintings and will store several paintings at once. If you paint on canvas and all the canvases are the same size, one method is to put push pins in, say, the upper left and lower right corners of each canvas, put the canvases face to face and tape the corners together using masking tape. Then put them back in the original boxes. (You may have leftover canvases as not as many will fit in the boxes now that push pins are between them.)
Typically, the day will begin with the class assembling and each person introducing themselves. The teacher will give an overview of the class, where it will meet and the time, and do a demonstration illustrating the lesson of the day. Afterward, the members are free to choose their location within a given area and begin painting.
At first this is somewhat overwhelming because the artist might have and 8" x 10" canvas board on which to paint and a panorama of sights from which to choose a scene. To make it easier, the artist has a few choices. She can make a few sketches in her sketch book as to how she thinks the scene will look when painted. She can also use a view finder which will block out all but the desired scene and move it around to get the optimum positioning. The view finder can be as humble as putting one's thumbs and forefingers together to make an opening approximately the shape of her support, or as complicated as a small plastic with a slide that alters the shape of the view from rectangular to square, depending on the shape of the artist's support.
Often the workshop instructor visits each painter once or twice during each session to offer suggestions. After all, he/she wants the painter to be pleased with the finished product. If the instructor has a critique session each day, that's a bonus! Each member of the workshop has a chance to comment on all the paintings created. A critique session can prove to be very helpful to the artist because the many members of the workshop often have ideas that are totally new to the artist. If comments are offered in a positive manner, the workshop participant can go home refreshed and inspired and eager to begin painting.
At Mary's Art, Inc. we have a large variety of original hand painted oil paintings on canvas. these inexpensive, colorful paintings were created en plein air (French for "open air") to capture the feelings and emotions of nature and bring them to you for your enjoyment. They are modern in style, somewhat abstract, and with expressionism overtones. Please visit http://www.murphyartstudio.com and find paintings your whole family will love.
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