Introduction to Plein Air Landscape Painting (Painting Outside) by Heather Smiley

Why paint outside when you have to contend with sunburn, cold, bugs, rain, snow, wind when you can take a photo and paint in the comfort of home?  Let me explain.

An artist is someone who can conceptualize an emotion, or an idea, a moment and turn it into a 2D or 3D image that we can see.  

You begin with a passion to express yourself and your response to the world around you. 

Next,  you surround yourself with things that you can see, touch, hear, taste or smell  that act as the catalyst for inspiration.

Thirdly, you merge your passion with your inspiration and your response, and find a way to bring it into the world.

Plein air painting invites you to engage your senses to experience and absorb the landscape you exist in so that you can express your reaction and relationship to it.  Painting a landscape is like engaging in a conversation with the world you are looking at and perceiving.

In very practical terms, here are the things you learn to do when you paint outside:

You learn to see.  You learn to look at the things in front of you.  You learn to perceive the following things and express them on a 2D surface:

  • Scale

  • Proportion

  • Perspective

  • Colour

  • Value (lightness or darkness of things)

  • Shape

  • Line 

  • Form

  • Texture

You learn to compose a scene.  You can’t paint everything in front of you.  You want to be true to the landscape in front of you, but you are not a slave to it.  

You learn to be focused.  Light and weather change constantly.  The sun will set and then you can’t see.  Carpe diem.

Resources - This is a very short list, but there’s lots to learn!

Kevin MacPherson     Landscape Painting Inside and Out

Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Colour

John F. Carlson Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting

Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Outdoor Painter - plein air podcast    https://www.outdoorpainter.com/podcast/

Sarah Burns                                       https://fearlessbrush.com/

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