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Plein air painting is often only partially
understood. Contrary to current market abuse of the word it is
not synonymous with Impressionism and quick
sketching. It is finished painting done by a painter who paints from life,
on-site, from start to finish with only minor work being done in the studio.
The artist, however, is doing more than painting outdoors he/she is capturing a
moment in time of some transitory aspect of the landscape, seascape or figurative
work. A vanishing mist on the land, a shadow cast from a passing cloud, the
movement of wheat in the wind, the moment of a fisherman casting a line or raking
in a catch, or a wave rolling into surf. It can also be the extended
development of a painting over a period of days or weeks at the same location and
at similar times in order to develop a larger scene or more detailed piece. In either
case it is impossible for an artist to claim he/she is painting en plein air without
the recognition of nature's transitory aspects… The combination of the elusive
qualities of light, the battling of wind and weather changes, cloud movements, waves
movements, trees rustling... All this demands that the artist capture a subject's
essence and hence requires that the artist know a great deal about the subject.
All these things work against the artist if he/she has not already mastered the
medium.
Chapin
Segments have been published by the
Washington Post and the
American Artist Magazine
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