Plein Air Blog

Summer Wind Patterns

Robert Reynolds — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:43:00 GMT

As we all start getting ready to step outside our studios and paint outdoors or create studio landscape painting based on our experiences in nature, I wanted to explain the design elements that I put together for this particular painting, Summer Wind...(read more)

From Nature's Tinest Creatures to Her Broadest Feats

johnandann@theartistsroad — Thu, 02 May 2013 03:04:00 GMT

The patterns of nature inspire our artwork. One of the most fascinating recent discoveries is the intimate relationship between the patterns found in nature's tiniest creations to the patterns found in her broadest, most sweeping productions. The...(read more)

Painting the Brightness of Sunlit Snow

johnandann@theartistsroad — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:44:00 GMT

The large snow storms that graced our area this winter gave us opportunities to study the unique light, colors and shadows that only snow cover provides. Painting snow presents many challenges to the plein air painter--the least of which is the cold....(read more)

A Passion for Gardens

johnandann@theartistsroad — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:19:00 GMT

We are not alone as artists in our passion for gardens. We follow in the footsteps of several rather impressive artists throughout history. Our personal gardens are designed for plein air painting and inspire us in every season. But this year, we have...(read more)

Long Live the Explorer

johnandann@theartistsroad — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 03:46:00 GMT

The last two centuries, in particular, witnessed the final great explorations of the surface of the planet by scientists, geographers, and surveyors. In those pre-photography days, and for a while after, artists were an integral part of any expedition...(read more)

Stairways to Heaven

johnandann@theartistsroad — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:56:00 GMT

"Of the original phenomena, light is the most enthralling." - Leonardo da Vinci Crepuscular rays are those wonderful beams of light we see at the beginning or end of the day that appear to radiate from the single point of the sun and stream...(read more)

Painting Fog and Mist

johnandann@theartistsroad — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:41:00 GMT

Recently, we received a good question from a reader about how to paint one of our favorite landscape subjects--fog and mist. To understand how to paint light effects, it can be helpful to have a basic understanding of why things work the way they do....(read more)

Black and Blue and an Indigo Bunting

johnandann@theartistsroad — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:08:00 GMT

When is blue not blue? Ask any Indigo Bunting and they will tell you, "When it is black!" This is because the feathers of the diminutive Indigo Bunting are not actually blue, they are black, and only appear blue to us when they are in direct...(read more)

Ever Hear of the Purkinje Effect?

johnandann@theartistsroad — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 04:13:00 GMT

Have you ever noticed when you are plein air painting how the colors of objects look so radically different in the very low light just before dawn or twilight? Take a red rose, for instance. We know that the flower's petals are bright red against...(read more)

Power to the Pencil

johnandann@theartistsroad — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:10:00 GMT

With so much interest in plein air painting these days, it's easy to overlook how important drawing skills can be to the landscape painting artist. Fundamentally, drawing is both a way of seeing and a way of knowing a subject. If you can draw it,...(read more)

Dark Shadows

johnandann@theartistsroad — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:30:00 GMT

Why go to the trouble of painting from life when our cameras can take such great pictures? Digital cameras have gotten so good at taking properly exposed, beautiful photos that they can fool us into thinking that they are also accurate. To be sure, the...(read more)

It's Not Because I'm Lazy

Marion Boddy-Evans — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 04:15:00 GMT

You’re in a beautiful plein air painting location, you whip out your camera and take photograph after photograph – it's essential to have lots of references for landscape painting, you know. Then you dig out your sketchbook, pencils, and...(read more)

Into the Arctic: The Plan

Cory Trepanier — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:39:00 GMT

Zooming in and out of the Canadian North like a hummingbird on a flower, my mouse was beginning to heat up. An armchair explorer’s best friend, Google Earth was helping me understand the massive scale of the Arctic ( here's my video all about...(read more)

Can't Get No Satisfaction?

johnandann@theartistsroad — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 05:10:00 GMT

We travel frequently to paint en plein air in new locations and sometimes teach workshops in those new environments as well. One of our favorite locations is northern New Mexico--the Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch area. Each day while we are there, we plan our...(read more)

See the Forest NOT the Trees

johnandann@theartistsroad — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:48:00 GMT

"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky." - Khalil Gibran Perhaps the biggest challenge for those of us who paint from life is to see and understand what is right before our eyes. This may sound simple, but it is anything but, and...(read more)