"In the open air" is the translation for the French term en plein air. Plein, an adjective meaning full, whole, filled or replete, gives us a better understanding of the intent of this term.

To be en plein air is not merely to be outside, but to be experiencing with all ones senses the whole of the great outdoors!

To draw or paint en plein air is a relatively recent development in art history and some suggest it began with the great English landscape artist John Constable (1776-1837). He believed nature held all the truths and landscape paintings, to bee truthful, must be based on direct observation. Constable urged fellow artists to follow his lead, forget about techniques and formulas and move out of the studio to see their subject with their own eyes. Although this artist, who indeed is known for the atmospheric quality of his works, began with oil sketches from nature, the paintings were finished in the studio.

Around this same time in the small French village of Barbizon, there were a group of artists who rebelled against the effects of the Industrial Revolution on city life. They gathered in this countryside setting to produce paintings that romanticized the dignity of manual farm labor, the simple way of peasant life and the idyllic qualities of the bucolic setting.

Artists, like Millet (1814-1875), took their sketchbooks to the fields to personally record the peasants, activities in the rural landscape. Like Constable, their sketches served as the basis for the finished works that were completed in the studio.

Corot (1796-1875), with ties to the Barbizon painters, was perhaps the first to actually begin and complete his paintings en plein air. The finest works of this landscape artist are said to be his early small canvasses that were executed on location in an hour or two. These paintings, like photography, were Corot's way of recording the truth and the immediacy of the moment in his travels.

Trusting what is being seen at a particular point in time is the underlying principal of the French Impressionists theory that "what is seen is not form, but light on form). Due to the somewhat blurred quality of the en plein air paintings by Manet (1832-1883), Monet (1840-1926) and the other Impressionists, critics at first considered then unfinished. Later, however, this characteristic became the accepted norm for a "truthful, painting generated through the outdoor experience."

The influence of the Impressionists soon reached the United States where artists of the day became caught up in the movement with some even traveling to France to study with Monet and the others. In America colonies of plein air painters began to spring up in the locals where the light was best, notably on the East and West coasts and in the Southwest.

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) opened one of the first outdoor painting schools in America on Long Island in 1895. Enthusiasm for painting directly from nature reached its peak in California in the early 1900,s and produced such greats as Guy Rose (1867-1925) and Edgar Payne (1883-1947). "Composition of the Outdoor" by Payne is still considered by many to be the definitive instruction book for the plein air painter.

Today,s market for collecting works of the early American plein air artists, particularly those who painted California and the Southwest, is strong and growing. This has sparked a revival in painting outdoors that is being cultivated by artists, groups across the country. They sponsor plein air art shows and "paint-outs" at incredible scenery locations here and abroad. Like the artists before them, most don't complete their works outside, but to be considered plein air, the essentials of the works are completed before the finishing touches are added at the studio.


"Two Palms," by Peggy Everett.

Peggy Everett, a talented painter living on St. Simons, recently attended a 10-day en plein air paint-out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In this workshop she and her fellow artists were challenged with capturing the ever-changing scenery before them by being required to turn out a new oil study every 20 minutes. In a day they each completed 14 paintings and over the course of the workshop they each produced 140 works.

As Peggy explains, for the artist used to all the comforts of the studio, this experience was some times irreverently referred to as painting "in pain air." Not only were there the rigors of hiking to the ideal location and then rapidly painting one scene after another, but there was also the reduction of art supplies to the bare essentials. For example, their palettes had to be created from just three primary colors plus white. The artists, who normally work with 10 or more tubes of paint when outdoors, went crazy the first couple of days without the convenience of having their very favorite colors at hand.

Peggy adds, "These were not amateurs, mind you. We were all professionals and some were even signed up under assumed names, so as not to be recognized by the celebrity of their own works, art instruction books or workshops."

After overcoming the initial pains of plein air, the artists found the paint-out experience rewarding, and working with only three colors perhaps the most rewarding aspect of all.

The en plein air paintings by Peggy Everett can be found in the "Modern Impressionists" exhibit at the Left Bank Art Gallery on St. Simons during the month of August. For further information, contact gallery owner Mildred Huie Wilcox at 1-800-336-9469 or (912) 638-3017.