Plein Air Oil Painting Workshop: Light and Design  

June 1-3, 2007
5 sessions, about three hours each $190

A believable feeling of light is often what makes a landscape painting sing. That, and perhaps more importantly, an effective design. This workshop will emphasize the development of skills that will improve your ability to achieve that sense of light while working in the field. We will also work on how composition can make your painting stand out and get noticed.

Friday evening, 7-10:00, in my south Minneapolis studio, I'll talk about my approach to achieving a sense of light, techniques for increasing your speed while on location, and ideas for scouting and arranging interesting compositions. Will this scene make for an interesting picture?

Saturday and Sunday we’ll have early morning and late afternoon sessions. Locations will be in the general near metro area, but will depend on the group's interests. At least one session will focus on an urban scene.

Some thoughts about plein air painting

I love the honesty of painting from nature. It’s the painter’s direct response to the day, the sun, the weather, the air. The speed required to express fleeting light is a good thing, sharpening the senses. Plein air painting is a kind of performance art—the painter acting in a singular space in time.

A plein air painting is like a musical performance recorded live. It records a moment that will never be exactly repeated. There’s a spark in the process that can be harder to find in a studio production where—in an effort to eliminate imperfection—an artist tends to second-guess intuition and spontaneous expression.

Painting outdoors is not easy and it's not always fun, but with time and practice it can be tremendously rewarding. Humility is part of the process. Getting a hit one out of three times at bat is a measure of excellence in baseball, and it’s a good rate for a plein air painter too. Fortunately, everywhere we look the world reveals new compositions of subtlety and beauty, light and space.

A note about painting from photos:

Yes, it can be done, but it’s difficult to do it effectively without the knowledge gained from painting extensively outdoors. The human eye is more discerning than a camera. It edits and subordinates what isn’t compelling—exactly what the best paintings do. In addition, when you use snapshots as your sole reference, your color choices and value judgments are subject to the vagaries of gamma calibrations, inkjet chemicals, and paper quality.

The truth is, literally, out there.