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Moira Donohoe’s Blog

Outdoor (Plein Air) Painting

Painting outdoors or en Plein Air is enjoying huge popularity these days, but it is not a new phenomena. Extremely popular among artists it has also captured the collective imagination of the country. Since the French Impressionist in the later part of the 19^th Century began painting outdoors to capture the effects of light on form, painting in the open air has experienced ebbs and flows. It was avidly pursued on this side of the Atlantic in the later part of the 1800’s, and the early 20^th Century, and groups such as “The Society of Six” based mostly in Coastal California, and “The Canadian Seven” in Eastern Canada actively painted and promoted the art form. Santa Catalina Island off the southern California coast was and still is a hot spot for plein air painting. Many art groups around the country have their branch of ardent outdoor painters, such as Yosemite Western Artists based in Oakhurst California. www.yosemitewesternartists.org/  and the Modoc Plein Air Painters, www.facebook.com/groups/ModocPleinAirPainters/   www.alturasartcenter.com/  in Alturas California

Alturas is high desert country in north eastern California and quite different from the Yosemite area where I was raised and still live part time. Contrast can bring dynamism to a painting, so too perhaps to life. We had not been in Alturas long before I discovered the Art Center where I began teaching art classes through Lassen College.  Margo Curtis was the much loved and respected resident teacher who was retiring. She was a tough act to follow. The first class I taught at the Art Center for Lassen College was drawing.  About 18 people had signed up, and among the names was Margo Curtis! OMG! One of the staff there told me that one student was “the” Modoc County Arts Council, the county being so small in population that Ken did everything.  Well, I gave it my best shot, and today I count some of my good friends and colleagues from that group. The current exhibit at the Art Center Gallery is Modoc Plein Air Painters, The group began informally as friends who enjoyed painting together outside. Now we have a monthly date during the months that one can feasibly paint outdoors here. Subjects are varied from mountains, aspen groves, to sagebrush steppes, and we’ve planned painting trips to the coast, Sierra Nevada, and Southern Oregon, with thoughts of going further afield in the future. 

What child if given the opportunity wouldn’t love being out in nature smearing paint around on paper in response to the life around them. That’s the way my love affair with paint and brush began. I painted outside in the meadows of Yosemite as a child, and later took gear hiking on the high trails in the Sierra. Going outside to paint has its pros and cons. The biggest best thing to me is responding from the gut, in the moment, on the spot. Paintings done outside have a freshness that is sometimes lacking in studio paintings. They also are challenging at times. I personally have gone out in all kinds of weather, as have many die hard painters. It’s not always what I prefer, but it certainly makes you feel alive. Then there is the proverbial fly in the ointment which translates to fly in the paint, or mosquito, or gnat, or no see um. Once while teaching a pastel workshop in Yosemite, one student who paused to consider his work took a bite of his prussian blue instead of the granola bar he had in the other hand. Another time in another workshop, the same student spilled his entire palette of 200 or so pastels as he watched his easel somersault down the creek embankment it had been perched on. These are just a few of the possible occupational hazards. Still in all, the positive far outweigh the negative. Around the country plein air events and competitions are growing in numbers. Plein Air magazine has an enthusiastic following, and plein air workshops in all media abound. For me I can combine two long abiding loves, being outdoors and painting.