Featured Artist in August - Breeze By! ~ Potomac Artworks

7.26.2011

Featured Artist in August - Breeze By!

My time as Featured August Artist in the Exhibition Series begins Monday. Before then, catch the final days of Megan Coyle's show and read this review about her collages. My show will be about half pastels and half photographs, with a few new pen and inks with watercolors and a smattering of oils, all featuring summery themes and a lot of the outdoors.

I'd check it out just to read the quotes. One favorite is, "Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it," by Russel Baker.

See you at the Opening on Thursday, August 4! Breeze By!

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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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7.26.2011