en plein air
Nicole Palmer
The term ‘en plein air’ is French and it means in the outdoors. (The word plein is pronounced like the word ‘then’ but with a PL not a TH) In the early 1800’s oil paints were made from ground up pigments and thus all artists were fully committed to being in the studio. In 1841 John Rand, an American artist invented the paint tube and thus removed the shackles of painting only inside.
In the mid-1800’s artists like Monet and Renoir began painting outdoors and they also embraced the impressionistic style. These paintings were met with great criticism, because you could actually see the brush strokes, something never done before. In time however, the public embraced this style and today it has a huge following both for the artists and the buyers.
Mark Lague, a Canadian artist whom I have taken instruction from said……"the powerfulness is not in what you see, it is in how you portray it". I love that concept. So below you will see a photo of the beehives in a field sitting just before the woods, and then you will see my interpretation of that scene. Here’s hoping that my painting captured that scene with some imagination folded in.
