I recently returned from a trip to Colorado, and while on that trip I got into quite the (heated) debate with two figure painters who claimed that plein air painters who sell their on-site sketches are bringing down the overall value of art. What’s your opinion? Is plein air painting a means to an end—in other words, just the information-gathering stage to accurately capture the light, color, and shapes of a scene before turning that subject into a larger studio work—or can plein air paintings stand on their own as finished, collectable pieces of art?
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