I came across this great blog article about plein air painting through Jerry's Artarama.... sounds like there may be several posts on the subject.
Plein Air Painting - An Introduction
What is plein air painting?
If you're at all familiar with
art and painting, even peripherally, chances are you've heard of
"plein air" painting. Despite appearances, painting
en plein air is not just a
snooty phrase tossed around by painters who are trying to be impressive: it's a
real thing, practiced for hundreds of years, and one most likely in practice today by
many artists who just aren't aware of its
fancy French name.
The term
en plein air is simply French for "
in the open air," meaning plein air painting is just
creating art outdoors. Now, you'll be thinking, "What about cavemen? What about Australian aborigines? What about all those outdoor megaliths and Egyptian statues and everything that's been around for
thousands of years before France even existed? Surely THEY didn't work
en plein air!"
Okay, technically that's correct. It's just that the French
coined the phrase for it back in the 1800's when
painting outdoors really took off and
its popularity skyrocketed.
Read the rest of the article by clicking on the link below...
http://www.jerrysartarama.com/blog/post/2013/03/19/Plein-Air-Painting-An-Introduction.aspx
