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I don't like most of what I paint outdoors, but the process is the point; and I know it will make me a better painter. (Gaye Adams)
Ninety percent of my plein-air landscape paintings are completed on location, but it's the last ten percent that I do at my studio easel that is my personal interpretation as an artist. (Peter Adams)
With all the changing atmosphere and clouds, changing light and everything, you basically have to stick to your original idea. It's very challenging at times. (Clyde Aspevig)
Your painting can look really silly, but when you take it away from the subject matter, it becomes something entirely different. When it's not competing with the landscape, it can work. (Clyde Aspevig)
Plein-air painting is the perfect forum for learning how to use watercolor, as it is observation-driven. Placing technique secondary to observation is the essence of working the field. (Ken Auster)
Plein-air is not about quickly executing a scene and slinging thick paint just to have it on the canvas. Maintaining control of art principles is an imperative. (Kenn Backhaus)
Once artists have set a course, they need to stick to that course and not allow the ever-changing on-location process to interfere. (Kenn Backhaus)
Painting en plein air you will be doing problem solving 'on your feet.' (J.R. Baldini)
Shade trees are heroes to a lowly, overheated plein-air painter. (Brenda Behr)
When painting and sketching plein-air I sink into the landscape, an attuned witness to its mood and beauty. (Dianne Bersea)
out-of-doors, n. That part of one's environment upon which no government has been able to collect taxes. Chiefly useful to inspire poets. (Ambrose Bierce)
With Fench easels... there are these 'wing nuts' and after setting up and taking down 3 or 4 times a day, those little nuts become 4 letter words!!! (Betty Jean Billups)
Every time we go out to paint, we are full of reasons why painting right this very minute isn't such a good idea – the ferry is about to leave, it may rain at any moment, there's no comfortable place to sit... our brains come up with a hundred reasons not to pick up the brush. (Eleanor Blair)
There is an undeniable urgency when painting outdoors – nature's so grand, the canvas so small. It takes the human mind with all its grand abilities and complexities to sort through the overwhelming visual feast set before it and re-create on canvas the essential components of such beauty and wonder. (Jan Blencowe)
To look, to see, to understand, to capture – however imperfectly – is to be part of the land in a way like no other. (Jan Blencowe)
Some plein-air painters take considerable time to find just the right spot to paint before settling down to work and others are painting in less than two minutes of arrival. Often, it is the painter who sets up immediately who does the best work. (Linda Blondheim)
Plein-air painting is still an interpretation of reality, even though I am seeing the scene first hand. My 'truth' is far more interesting to me than the scene in reality. (Linda Blondheim)
Plein-air painting is my response to the moment - the reflected light in the water or the mood created by the shadows. (Keith Bond)
You can be bashed around in the bush. If your hands freeze, your face burns, or the mozzies suck your blood, so much the better. (Lorne Bouchard)
-b.1824 d.1898...
Everything that is painted directly and on the spot has always a strength, a power, a vivacity of touch which one cannot recover in the studio... three strokes of a brush in front of nature are worth more than two days of
work at the easel. (Eugene Boudin)
We flogged through thigh-deep mud and were poked and punctured by ancient spruce that were no more than 2 meters tall. We were to seek cover from the insects and were always on the lookout for bears and angry moose. For landscape painters it is very important to experience the places we choose to paint first hand. (Mark A. Brennan)
I feel the pounding of my heart and the wind through my fingertips as I rush to paint again. (K. A. Bressler)
Notes from the field become part of an ongoing experience where each painting contributes in some way to the next. (Gavin Brooks)
Creating on the spot has an adventure that my modest words will never explain. Ask an auto racer, a ,mountain climber. Something happens when all five senses are working and the sixth sense arrives. (Harley Brown)
-describing the Society of Six, an Oakland, California, group of plein-air landscape painters, 1916-1929...
Fence-Post Impressionism. (Peter William Brown)
Plein-air paintings are life, and without them the rest of my work would die. Without it, I would have nothing to say in the studio, because without real-life experience, art is impossible. (Scott Burdick)
Working outdoors or from life puts you in direct contact with the life force, not just the light and the landscape, but also the vitality of the world around you. (George L. Carlson)
It is a curious fact that out-of-door nature is to the beginner an enormously overloaded 'property room.' He sees, for instance, the myriad of leaves upon the tree long before he sees the tree at all. (John F. Carlson)
All pictures painted inside in the studio will never be as good as the things done outside. (Paul Cezanne)
I strive to capture the moment, that fleeting light or atmospheric effect, tackled with a sense of urgency and an awareness that the prevailing conditions are transient and will not be precisely repeated. (Trevor Chamberlain)
Among famous traitors of history one might mention the weather. (Ilka Chase)
I don't believe in making pencil sketches and then painting your landscape in your studio. You must be right under the sky. (William Merritt Chase)
Organizing the shapes, colors, patterns and values as they relate to the rest of the landscape, and which shift in the changing light, presents problems as well as many opportunities. (Scott L. Christensen)
When I begin in my 'place,' I make a drawing in every direction from where I stand, and often what I end up painting is behind me. I see artists as having more eyes than most. (Suzanne Kelley Clark)
It is important to realize how connected we all are as humans, especially as artists, and especially as plein-air artists. (Rodney Cobb)
With all our precautions in choosing a simple subject, and only working grey days, it will be found that anything out-of-doors is apt to change its colour and tone in a very perplexing way. (John Collier)
I see much opinion expressed by artists about the superiority of painting outdoors over studio work, yet many painters who call themselves plein-air painters do much of their work in the studio, using paintings done outdoors as reference, along with photos. (Melinda Collins)
I only paint one thing - the effect of light. If I can do that, then anything worthy of being painted will appear on my paper or canvas - a tree, a forest, a mountain... It will have been worthy because of the unique river of light and shadow that flowed across it for that one brief hour or two. (Michele Cooper)
It's all that reality - you are in the world that you're painting. The light changes, the wind blows, things are constantly moving. You are forced to paint quickly and spontaneously. (Sherrill Cooper)
Do console your poor friend, who is so troubled to see his paintings so miserable, so sad, next to the radiant nature he has before his eyes! (Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot)
Painting directly from nature lends itself to a more intimate infusion of the subject... Despite the inconvenience, and sometimes tortuous conditions of wind, rain, bugs and extreme weather conditions, something inexplicable gets into the painting that seldom appears in a studio piece. (Guy Corriero)
-on John Singer Sargent...
In these sketches from the portfolio of a wandering painter we have the typical modern naturalist noting whatever chances to appeal to him... not for what they are or what they mean, but almost solely for how they look. (Kenyon Cox)
My oils are finished alla prima in the field... decorated with suicidal bugs... my shirt soaked in sweat. This is authentic 'guerrilla' painting, backpacking everything into remote locations... enraptured there until the light fails. (Alan Craig)
It's a higher frequency of consciousness when you get 'out there.' (Aliye Cullu)
The first time we went out to paint en plein air, it was so cumbersome. I tried to drag my whole studio with me. They were already painting and I was still stumbling through the brush trying to get my gear set up. (Bill Davis)
While painting at Ghost Ranch, a dust storm came up and filled my wet canvas with sand and possibly the remains of many whose ashes had been sprinkled in the canyon, looking towards Pedernal Mountain where Georgia O'Keeffe painted so many times. There is nothing quite like painting en plein air. (Dee Beard Dean)
If I were in the government I would have a brigade of policemen assigned to keeping an eye on people who paint landscapes outdoors. Oh, I wouldn't want anyone killed. I'd be satisfied with just a little buckshot to begin with. (Edgar Degas)
Plein-air paintings are a bit like short poems. These poems are not deep and heavy but more light and breezy. A good poet might write a bunch of them and throw away more than a few. A plein-air painting is rough and reveals a good deal more about the artist than a studio job. (Paul deMarrais)
When I'm painting on location, I've found that unique lighting effects change quickly, and this led me to my greatest painting lesson: Grab the essence of the scene first!... for a sunlit effect, the part that I find most appealing is the light bounce. (Jeanne Dobie)
Sketching at an altitude of 6500 feet with the road blocked by snow to my right and an indigo sky of the approaching storm to my left was an exhilarating experience. A guide had driven us there in his old four-wheel drive vehicle and his knowledge of the mountains and the weather patterns prevented us from getting soaked by the downpour that the artists in the valley were experiencing. (Lorna Dockstader)
Detached from judgement, hesitation, fear of failure or imitation, one embraces the moment and the place, as revealed in value, color, and shape - the impossible can happen and the spirit of the place appears as if by magic. (Dean Taylor Drewyer)
A sitting place should be examined first, lest it turns out to be an anthill. (Les Ducak)
If you can't paint it with all of this hanging out there at the end of your nose, how do you expect to do it better back in your basement. (Augustus W. Dunbier)
Waste not your time on broad sketches in color. (Asher B. Durand)
After ten days of battling the elements in the Florida heat, the [a veteran studio painter's] response to the question, 'So how do you like painting outdoors?' was, 'I realize now that I prefer painting in Plein-Air Conditioning!' (Mary Erickson)
The view is loaded with Light, Light, Light, ever changing and so wonderful in its myriad colors. (Candace Faber)
I'm constantly painting the landscape in my head as I drive along, and when I see something that refuses to give way to the next scene, I stop the car and turn around. (Gay Falkenberry)
Some plein-air artists profess their works are somehow more valid because they were painted on location. If you're a musician inspired by nature, does that mean you have to create a symphony out in the field? (Peter Fiore)
I set up behind my van and tried to paint for a while but it was so windy and cold I gave up after 20 minutes. Only later did I discover a spray pattern on the van from the wind blowing paint off the palette! (John Fitzsimmons)
-A Song of the Weather...
January brings the snow / Makes your feet and fingers glow / February's ice and sleet / Freeze the toes right off your feet / Welcome March with wintry wind / Would thou wer't not so unkind / April brings the sweet spring showers / On and on for hours and hours... (Michael Flanders)
Working on location occasionally, I find I have to change my method in order to complete a painting before the bugs or the heat drive me away. This has forced me to go immediately to that which I most want to say in the painting. I have taken this lesson to the studio... (Nina Allen Freeman)
Plein-air painting and painting from a reference: The first is like going to Paris for two weeks with your girl friend, the second is like reading a book about Paris at the local library. (Sylvio Gagnon)
An early flourish of confidence is useful. Then there's the small crudities – the slubs and bumps that come with outdoor work – the odd charm of imprecision. (Robert Genn)
No one would have the courage to walk up to a writer and ask to look at the last few pages of his manuscript, but they feel perfectly comfortable staring over an artist's shoulder while he is trying to paint. (Robert Genn)
The 'wandering studio' gathers and stores experiences, takes chances with the unfamiliar and requires a measure of self-trust. Mistakes are part of the change of scene. (Sara Genn)
Studies done out of doors are different from paintings intended to go out into the world. In my view the latter stem from the studies, but may, and indeed must, differ from them markedly. For in the painting the artist presents a more personal idea, and in a study his aim is simply to analyze a piece of nature. Either to give his thought or conception precision, or to arrive at a thought. (Vincent van Gogh)
Everything outside is exciting to look at. There are suddenly hundreds of paintings all around me. (Irwin Greenberg)
Whenever I've gone outdoors to paint there is this heightened perceptiveness afterwards. This being at one with everything - the air is fresher and the sky is glorious. It's a thrill to be alive - and being a painter makes you the luckiest of men. (Irwin Greenberg)
There comes a point in an outdoor painting when you should ignore the subject and do what the painting demands. (Don Grieger)
- Gruppe on Color...
When I paint outdoors, I've always liked to let the paint do some of the work. I go for the big effect; and when I get it, I let the rest go. (Emile Gruppe)
For my plein-air work, I typically travel by dinghy and on foot [from on-board studio living]. (Karen Hewitt Hagan)
Painting with stiffened hands in zero weather is, in itself, something of a trick. (A. T. Hibbard)
Snow and paint make a hopeless mixture. When a gale blows, you need to scrape your palette clean and, if the colors are not too stiff in the tubes, reset it with fresh pigment. There is always the hazard of frozen ears and frostbitten nose. (A. T. Hibbard)
Deep into a climb into the mountains to paint, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my palette box. Determined to paint anyway, I set up, found a flattish rock, squeezed my paint onto it and used it as a palette. Afterwards, I cleaned off the rock and turned it upside down. Good as new! (Quang Ho)
I prefer every time a picture composed and painted outdoors. The thing is done without your knowing it. (Winslow Homer)
There is no bad weather for painting en plein air; only bad painting clothes. (Barbara Jablonski)
- The True Deceiver...
She had picked the spot the day before and carried out a stool low enough to sit on and still have her paintbox and her water cup within reach. Anna didn't use an easel. Easels seemed to her an altogether too assertive aid, too obvious. She liked to work as unobtrusively as possible, the paper spread on a board in her lap, close to her hand. (Tove Jansson)
For me, plein air painting is about taking home memories - contemplating the subject with all senses. Smell, touch, temperature, weather - the feeling of warm sun or the start of a rainstorm, for example - and sound. (Melissa Jean)
In the plein-air painters of our time, I have observed a renewed sense of urgency and fervor to capture the natural landscape. (L. Diane Johnson)
You're out in the field and the most perfect scene imaginable as been handed to you. In the excitement of this marvelous opportunity, you launch in with inspired sprezzatura. Surely, every brush stroke will be masterful... then the shadows move and the weather shifts, the tide comes in... but who'd have thought someone would cut the shrubbery? (Michael Chesley Johnson)
It took us out into the open air to look at Canadian landscape as distinct from European landscape. It necessarily meant that each was free to look at the landscape which attracted him... (Franz Johnston)
There is discomfort, even misery in being cold, and yet do you know I love this misery and court it. (Rockwell Kent)
Every time I see a painter go to extremes to capture the beauty of winter scenes, I tip my hat. Painting in the snow with jackets and gloves? Geez... sure glad I live in south Texas. (Jackie Knott)
After a few plein-air attempts, I found the fast and often half finished and underdone pieces were giving me more pleasure than laboriously ended paintings. So I am left with many 'unfinished' works done for my soul and not for sale. (George Kubac)
I can't think of anything finer than jumping out of bed or my sleeping bag, or rolling out of my camper in some remote place, and strapping on my backpack full of my painting supplies, then hitting the trail... (Jean LeGassick)
Hiking to the perfect spot with easel and other gear makes painting outdoors a tough sport. But, like all athletic challenges, when it finally goes well, the rewards are all the better for having overcome trials and tribulations. (Dorothy Lorenze)
-sketching at Lake O'Hara...
Snow and reflections were beautiful but transient effects and other difficulties were beyond me. (J. E. H. MacDonald)
I feel like a bear or an old pack horse recuperating, nothing highly spiritual but a bodily satisfaction. Perhaps that is being in 'toon with the infinite.' (J. E. H. MacDonald)
Nothing compares to judging spots of color next to each other en plein air. (Jeff Mahorney)
There is only one true thing: instantly paint what you see. (Edouard Manet)
The act of painting outdoors is like a dance to the tempo of the evolving day, following the lead of the wind, impelled by the measured meter of shadows moving in their eternal celestial rhythms. (Louisa McElwain)
As a plein-air artist, you are challenged to stretch yourself, as you are constantly exposed - by design or by accident - to experiences and scenes you might never have predicted or planned. (Zenaida Mott)
A true painter should have no home – but to wander in search of scenery and character – during Spring, Summer, and Autumn – some pictures to be finished on the spot, and others to be finished [in the studio] in the winter... (William Sidney Mount)
It is not surprising that some of the more successful plein-air painters have commercial art in their background. (Ned Mueller)
Painting outdoors is a distillation of time, a capturing of the essence of existence during a specific period in the artist's experience. (Charles Muench)
The most important element of plein-air painting is the remembered feel of nature one comes away with. The level of success of the painting is secondary to the moment experienced outdoors which you will carry back into the studio. (Raynald Murphy)
I start about 75 percent of my work outside, spending two to six hours before bringing the painting inside the studio to finish. For larger paintings, I try to return the picture to the same location for a second or even third day. (Thomas M. Nicholas)
When you're an artist - especially a plein-air artist, where you're working outside - you see the best of life all the time. (Tom Nichols)
A plein-air painter who has more than six brushes is insecure. (Billyo O'Donnell)
God's world is very beautiful and aesthetically superior, so when we paint directly from live subjects, we learn colour, light and brevity from the most indisputable teacher. (Serguei Ouissik)
Going out on location to local cotton gins used to be a ritual of mine. The conditions would be awful - very hot, cotton flying everywhere and noisy. However, now the gins have been torn down because of development and I'm glad I endured. The paintings are precious to me. (Hilary Page)
Working on-site is hard and fast. You have to work it out and get it done. It's like a swordfight. On the other hand, studio work is quiet, contemplative and internal... (Grace Paleg)
In about an hour it was so cold I couldn't squeeze the paint out of the tubes. I took my thermos of tea, poured a cup, immersed several tubes of paint and was able to thaw them enough to do a few quick paintings before I ran out of hot tea and toes. (Richard Paris)
Plein-air painting renews my 'art spirit' and inspires more creativity in the studio. (Bonnie Paruch)
We all enjoy those perfect days when the sun is shining; the clouds are interesting and the wind is low. Even a few bugs won't ruin the mood for painting en plein air. It is when the conditions are less than perfect that our true devotion to plein-air painting is put to the test. (John Stuart Pryce)
Like the rain and snow, the wind is generally not your friend when painting outside. It might add drama to a water scene and keep the bugs at bay, but it tends to just be chilling or send your easel and umbrella airborne. (John Stuart Pryce)
There is no other resource so plentiful, ever-changing, and full of information than nature around us. Get ready to dive in with both feet and don't forget to bring your sense of humor. (Lori Putnam)
All the students have shown more advance in two months of summer study than they have in a year of ordinary instruction, largely due to their free and wholesome life in the open air. (Howard Pyle)
I managed to potter along tolerably well in the morning, sitting in the sun and sketching the old buildings... but in the afternoon, sitting in the shade... with stiff fingers and chilled bones... the water froze in little cakes all over the picture. (Howard Pyle)
Like the sundial, my paint box counts no hours but sunny ones. (Arthur Rackham)
To speed things up even more, lay out your palette in one of those plastic boxes with a lid, set up the easel at the back of the car, and have brushes, turps, etc. back there, too. Then drive around on a windy day with lots of fast moving clouds. (Liz Reday)
I was outside one day. My insteps were hurting. It was very windy, and I had trouble keeping my easel up. So I quit. (Edward Redfield)
As difficult as it is painting outdoors, there is no where else I'd rather work - all the answers stand right before you. You may need to move some things around, but it is still all right there in front of you. A bit like taking an open book test. (William F. Reese)
If I don't have something in an hour-and-a-half or two hours, the sun is going to change, meaning my shadows are going to change. If I am painting the ocean, the tide is coming or going. (Todd Reifers)
Artists who battle the elements, the extreme effort and the exhaustive study to be able to paint a high-quality work in one sitting, wet-on-wet while on location, have something very special to offer. (B. Eric Rhoads)
I learned a lot of painting tricks painting outside. (James Rosenquist)
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. (John Ruskin)
Those wonderful things out of doors... rain, falling snow, wind – all these things to contend with only make the open-air painter love the fight. (Elmer Schofield)
It's opener, out there, in the wide, open air. (Dr. Seuss)
The plein-air artist gets to do it all - location scouting, directing, poetry, and painting. Each painting is part of a continuous tale, capturing the moment and recording the forever-changing landscape of life. (Randall Sexton)
-when the wind shifted at a pig farm painting site...
It is time to leave. (Lundy Siegriest)
To capture mood, light and the gentle breeze, try painting en plein air. (Heidi Smith)
I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly. Every effect is so transient, it must be rapidly painted. (Joaquin Sorolla)
The sun on rich objects and mystery in shadows, the feel of the temperature and atmosphere on my skin - these are the foundations of my compulsion to paint. (Kathryn Stats)
-The Hand Camera, 1897...
My picture, Fifth Avenue, Winter is the result of a three hours' stand during a fierce snow-storm on February 22nd 1893, awaiting the proper moment. My patience was duly rewarded. Of course, the result contained an element of chance, as I might have stood there for hours without succeeding in getting the desired pictures. (Alfred Stieglitz)
I would not encourage young artists today to paint in retrospect, but rather enjoy painting directly from life, where all the answers are looking right at you. (John Stobart)
Monet, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, Van Gogh and others went outside to paint for one simple reason – it looks different outside. (Mike Svob)
The plein air painter who hikes to his or her locations just naturally does fresher, more vigorous and inspired work. (Jarman Tartini)
To finish a work within the limited time frame [outdoors], I am compelled to abstract the forms and organize the value and color patterns,which pushes me to clarify what I'm tying to say in each painting. (Ann Templeton)
Nothing quite delivers the full experience of being out there like floating around soaking up the warmth of the early morning rays with a brush in hand. (Cory Trepanier)
As the evening mist worked its way into the scene, creating a warm filter through which the lowering sun bathed its light, it was all I could to to keep painting, and not just put my brushes down and soak it all in. Which, of course, I did for a while anyway. (Cory Trepanier)
Of course there is sometimes a price to pay. While I was busy painting, not only was my light dissipating quickly, but the fog had crept in slowly at the same time. When I lifted my eyes from the panel, I realized that I had better get a move on - and quickly. (Cory Trepanier)
There's nothing like leaving your soul in a place and enjoying the beauty of plein-air painting, battling the sun, insects and time. Always remember to keep your concentration and not bring home a turkey! (Andries Veerman)
Painting in the foothills of the Rockies this winter, I am struggling with gouache freezing on palette and paper. Next time I'm going to try sitting my palette on a hot-water bottle, said hot water to travel in a thermos until needed. (Frances Vettergreen)
Plein-Air painting: do not spend your time thinking about everything or you will miss what the painting is about - capture the mood of the day, have fun and think about it later. (Van Waldron)
-taken from the lyrics of When It's Gone, performed by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band / John Denver...
We only get one chance to listen to the wind, and when it is gone, it will not be back. (Van Waldron)
-to Samuel Harkness McCrea, 1896...
It will cost me very little to go out and little after I get there. (William Wendt)
The warm green of the grass, sprinkled with flowers of many hues, is a carpet whereon we walk with noiseless tread. (William Wendt)
Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn't photogenic. (Edward Weston)
Plein-air painting is not a spectator sport, and it's not a team effort. It's the discipline of discovering yourself as you try to unravel the magic. (Skip Whitcomb)
When you're on the spot, you're seeing the best values, the cleanest color and real edges. You're also seeing objects in a wonderful light, and you're much more apt to paint a clear, un-muddied picture. (Wayne E. Wolfe)
Painting in subzero weather with a brush stuck through a wool sock is still practiced in Russia. Even studies in watercolor are made in winter by using vodka to dilute the paints because it does not freeze. (John H. Wurdeman)
God, I've frozen my ass off painting snow scenes! (Andrew Wyeth)
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