Potomac River Regional Art Show ~ Potomac Artworks

7.08.2010

Potomac River Regional Art Show

This year, I decided to participate in the Annual Potomac River Regional Art Show, an exhibit hosted by the Colonial Beach Artists' Guild. Two of my pieces from Cape May are hanging there. I'd not been to Colonial Beach before, so it was a treat to drive down.

Colonial Beach's Second Friday Art Walk on July 9 runs from 6 to 9pm and it will include the Opening Reception at the Town Center located at the corner of Washington Ave and Hawthorne St. In another gathering, awards will be presented at the end of the exhibit on Sunday August 8 at 3pm.

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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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7.08.2010