Being a “plein aire” painter can involve cool, crisp fall mornings, happy butterflies flitting about, birds whistling a joyful tune and beautiful tree-covered mountains bursting with color. It can mean just you and nature sharing the best that each has to offer, with each brush- stroke seeming to come from the heavens above.
It can also mean baking under a searing summer sun, and flies or mosquitoes instead of butterflies. It can mean the couple on the bench that was your subject suddenly get up and leave, or a moving van pulls up and blocks your view of the bridge you were painting. Mother Nature may decide that big, heavy, sun-blocking clouds are what’s needed, completely changing the color palette you were originally inspired by.
If you go
* What: OutSide/InTown exhibit, “plein aire” paintings.* When: Through Aug. 30* Where: In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave.* Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday.* Phone: 267-9214.
The term “plein aire” is a French phrase that refers to a painting done in the open air, usually in one, relatively quick session. It must be done fairly quick to capture the colors and setting of the moment. Any changes to the scene can alter what the painter intends to get on canvas.
“Drunks can be a problem, too,” says Victoria Pearmain. “I had one guy want to talk to me while I was painting in my car.
“The biggest difficulty is the change of light, though.”
Pearmain is one of five “plein aire” artists whose works are on display through the end of August at In-Town Gallery on Frazier Avenue. The other four are Ann Currey, Ellen Franklin, Marie Miller and Janis Wilkey.
About 40 pieces, all done in oil on canvas, make up the exhibit. They include paintings of rivers, mountains, walking paths, barns, houses, trees and lakes. Many were painted in this area, while some of Currey’s works were done in Italy.
Miller says what usually distinguishes a “plein aire” painting from one created in a studio from memory or from a photograph is the deep and vivid nature of the colors. The brushstrokes also can be a giveaway, she adds.
“Someone told me there is just more passion in the brushstrokes of a ‘plein aire’ piece,” she says. “It’s the speed, I think. You have to work fast.”
Pearmain says painting from a photograph also removes some of the sensory impulses.
“A photograph is flat and doesn’t record the atmosphere,” she says. “It doesn’t record anything your senses pick up. Also, I just like being out there in nature.”
Both Miller and Pearmain also paint in studios and say those works are more deliberate and considered.
“This [plein aire] is a lot less cerebral and comes to you like a symphony,” Pearmain says. “Your brain, eyes, hand, all work quickly because a large number of items or elements come together like a piece of music.”
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.