What is Plain Air Painting?
“Plein Air” painters work on location to quickly capture the fleeting light effects that occur in nature. Typically the initial painting is completed on location in two to three hours before the quality of the light changes. The artist may return to the same location at the same time of day to complete the work, or may make adjustments in the studio.
Painting in this manner, rather than from photographs, gives the artwork a quality of being truthful to nature and conveys an atmosphere and feeling of a place that is not achievable by any other means. When viewing a Plein Air painting, you can almost imagine yourself in the scene.
A common
tool of these painters is the pochade box, a small portable box that contains a built-in palette,
room for oil paints and brushes and a means of support for the artwork. These pochade boxes may
either be held on the lap or mounted on a camera tripod to allow working standing up.
