Off to a Great New Year ~ Potomac Artworks

Many thanks to Infinity Art Gallery for hosting this art show and for providing me the venue for my piece, Barrett House Meadow, to receive a third place prize as well as for another pastel, Winter Walk, to be included as a finalist.

I especially appreciate the words of juror, Joseph Krawczyk, concerning Barrett House Meadow, left:

This work has a real “Old Masters” quality. I really like the impressionistic style. It reminds me of a cross between Monet and Van Gogh. The work has a very good sense of depth, and I can almost see the clouds moving across the sky, which must have made it difficult to capture as a plein air work of art. A very nice command of pastels!

Thank you very much indeed.

Happy New Year!

The Charm of en Plein Air

Much of my work is done en plein air, French for "in the open air." People often associate it with the Impressionists, but the move to paint outside preceded them by a number of decades. The trend to appreciate landscapes as a genre at all was new for the time.

Several characteristics contribute to the distinctive beauty of en plein air painting. They are generally smaller in size in order to be able to capture a scene in a single sitting. Because of the time limit and environmental factors such as the sun and shadows moving, they often lack extensive details and might appear slightly fuzzy or unfinished. Lastly, they tend to have a freshness and spontaneity which makes them impossible to compare to traditional and methodological studio work. That said, my own studio work tends toward the same feel as en plein air, which then identifies my overall style: softness with an edge.

My aim when painting en plein air is for alla prima paintings, which roughly translates for me as "what happens outside, stays outside." It adds another level of difficulty to the work.

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1.01.2010

Off to a Great New Year

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