Kathleen Dunphy OPA · · 8 Comments
The thermometer in the car topped out at 104 degrees on the way home. I walked in the door after a frustrating morning out in the field feeling spent and exhausted. I had set the alarm for 4 a.m. so that I could get up and get out to my plein air destination right as the sun came up on this summer morning. But ignoring all my plans, Nature took her own course and decided to cast a few stray clouds on the horizon, just enough to obscure the sun and completely change the look of the scene I set out to paint. I tried to be patient and wait it out, but by the time the clouds passed, the sun’s angle was too high for the effect I wanted to paint. And after that it was just too dang hot to stay outside any longer. Argh. It’s times like this that I can’t help but think about the comfort of the studio and the quick snapshot I took of the scene when I drove past it last time I was in the area. And the question that so many people ask me: Why plein air? Why not stay in the studio and use those great photos you took? Why haul all your gear out there and stand in the heat/cold/wind/bugs just to do a little painting you could whip out in your climate-controlled studio in no time?
The answer is simple: no painting done from a photo can ever compare to the energy, immediacy, and sense of place that can come through in a plein air piece. Somehow the feel of the day, be it heat or cold or wind or just a perfectly pleasant morning, makes its way down the arm and off the brush and onto the canvas. I wish I knew how it happens so I could fake that quality in the studio, but that’s the magic of plein air. Our experience comes out on the canvas. All our senses help to create the painting, not just our vision. We hear the cows lowing, we feel the breeze, we smell the hay…..it’s all there on the canvas. Even my worst plein air pieces have some small element of that particular day in them. I feel like I’m recording a moment in history: it will never be July 28, 2023 at 6:00 in the morning ever again in the history of the world, but now I have a little bit of it on canvas. How exciting is that?
Not all of my paintings are completed on location, and I paint many larger works entirely in the studio. But every piece I paint has its genesis in plein air studies. Working solely from photos leaves my paintings looking flat and unexciting. I use my reference photos to jog my memory or to help me come up with better designs that I may have overlooked when I was on location. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve discarded a studio painting because I didn’t have enough plein air information on the scene to make the painting look convincing and alive. All the answers are outside, and even the most frustrating day of plein airing brings a more acute awareness of the subtleties of painting from life. Those skills honed outside make the studio work that much easier and fun.
The day after that disappointing plein air excursion, I went out and hit it again…driving to that same spot and waiting for the sun. And this time it was perfect–all the things I love about painting outside came together in a couple of magic hours. I painted two quick studies for a larger studio piece I’ve had rattling around in my head for some time now, then rewarded myself with a loose, just-for-the-heck-of-it study on the way home. Standing in the shade of an oak tree with my dogs lounging around my feet, painting blooming oleander and distant hills with no expectations in mind except for the fun of putting paint on canvas: that’s just about as good as it gets. And that’s why I plein air.
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Robert J. Simone says
Nice work, Kathleen. Thanks for your observations. It’s true, there is no better education than painting on location. Devotion to painting outdoors is part of what separates the pretenders from the contenders.
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Justin T. Worrell says
Thank you for your thoughtful article. I wanted to provide some different perspective because I often find that people who espouse plein air painting tend to believe that it is the only pathway toward achieving work with, as you say, “…energy, immediacy, and a sense of place…”.
You clearly have a strong connection between what you are trying to achieve in your work and plein air. You seem to have reached an understanding about why plein air works for you. I think that’s great because many artists go a very long time without finding techniques that empower them to produce quality results.
See Alsollandscape vs plein air - WetCanvas: Online Living for ArtistsA Guide to Plein Air Painting - Jackson's Art BlogEn Plein Air: Painting in the Great Outdoors - Merritt GalleryPlein Air Painting Defined - LePrince Charleston Art Galleries on King StreetI believe that artists, especially young/beginning artists, need to be told that it’s ok if plein air is not their pathway toward creating work embedded with those magical qualities that good art carries within and conveys to the viewer. Your statement that “no painting done from a photo can ever compare to the energy, immediacy, and sense of place that can come through in a plein air piece” is a statement of an absolute and will not be true for everyone. I find that in talking with young/beginner aspiring landscape painters that many of them feel pressured (unfairly, in my opinion) to paint plein air and that they will only be successful, or achieve successful results, if they paint outside. Which is not true.
That said, I certainly encourage painters to try plein air. I did, and it wasn’t for me (for various reasons I will not belabor this reply with). Photos can certainly be a good source of reference and many accomplished artists use them with regularity (myself included). That said, it’s all about how you use them, and why you use them. Also, landscape can be about more than a “sense of place”. Some artists just want to paint the Potomac, or Mt. Rainier (or whatever landmark is near you) and that’s perfectly ok. I use temporal imagery to try to get beyond the concrete and visible to land in a spiritual, elevated location. And that’s ok too.
Because most things worth saying have been said better before, I will leave you with this wonderful quote from O’Keeffe (who I believe did paint and sketch outdoors): “I thought someone could tell me how to paint a landscape, but I never found that person. I had to just settle down and try. I thought someone could tell me how but I found nobody could. They could tell you how they painted their landscape, but they couldn’t tell me to paint mine.”
I think that we need to be careful with words. We need to share techniques and allow painters to decide which ones to incorporate into their work to achieve their result. They need to be able to paint their landscapes.
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Anne Marie Oborn says
Love your passion . There is always a story that goes along with the experience of painting “with nature” present. 😊
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Rob Robinson says
Loved it…. and a great reminder!
Thank you,
RobReply
Susan Henry says
Just the process of putting brush or pallet knife to canvas while seeing the true light of Plein Air is cathartic to say the least. I used to have to produce a perfect successful painting, now it’s the experience that counts. The sounds, the sights, the smells, the surprises. The meditative flow.
Irena Taylor says
Well stated. Painting en plein air involves all the senses that somehow get translated into the piece created on site.
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Kathryn Morris says
Agree with everything she wrote!…been there, love every minute!
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Smruti says
very nice blog
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KathleenDunphy OPA
Kathleen Dunphy OPA captures the beauty of nature, painting with a passion that radiates true-to-life light and color. She has earned Signature status with the Society of Animal Artists, the California Art Club,Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionist Society, Laguna Plein Air Painters, theAmerican Society of Marine Artists, and Artists for Conservation. She has also received many honors, including Best of Show at the American Impressionist Society, an Award of Excellence from the Oil Painters of America, and Grand Prize at the Acadia Invitational Exhibition in Maine. Kathleen and her husband live in the pristine Sierra Nevada Foothills of Northern California with her sidekick and canine companion, Ellie.
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