Catherine and Kelly painting at the workshop
The view and my start on the painting
Gretchen at work
The view we painted
Painting in Plein Air is my favorite way to paint and I don’t get to do it as often as I would like. Last Saturday we had a Plein Air workshop at Dickey RIdge Visitor Center in the Shenandoah National Park. It was a wonderful morning….cool in the morning but then the sun peaked out and the view was fabulous.
The term “plein air” was used to describe Claude Monet and the Impressionists in France. In French it means “open air” or “outside,” but since Monet’s time the term has been used to describe people who take their easels outdoors to paint. Plein air painting is for people who love to be outdoors in nature, people who love to paint landscapes (as well as other outdoor subjects like buildings, old barns, flowers, gardens, etc).
The colors and detail you can see while painting outdoors is so much more vivid than you see when painting from photos. And where we live there are so many lovely scenes to paint…the mountains, the valley, the Shenandoah and so much more. (Click here and here to see other plein air painting session.)
We will hold another Plein Air workshop this fall so if you have ever wanted to give it a try start planning now to join us.
The Studio 