With the Fresh Coast Plein Air Festival coming up at the end of June, I’ve been thinking about plein air painting. In particular, I’ve been pondering the difficulties and challenges that naturally occur, as well as the rewards of painting in nature.
I hope that by the time you get to the end of this article, you have a new appreciation for plein air paintings, and the artists who produce them.
Quick History
Renoir’s “Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil”
“En plein air” is the proper term referring to “painting outside”. The term goes back to the French impressionist period, although the practice goes back much further. Artists have long made sketches and studies in nature, then refined those loose paintings into polished studio works.
According to the book Monet by Frank Milner, Claude Monet “insisted that all of the picture should be painted from start to finish with…
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Off-the-couch Art 