The 5th Annual Plein Air Live came to an end Friday, March 8th, wrapping up with some of today’s best landscape painters sharing all of their secrets, explaining their materials, methods, and more, with a focus on painting en plein air.
The next online Live event is September 18-20, 2024, with Pastel Live. Join us then to be with fellow painters online for days of demonstrations, Q&A with your favorite artists, mingling during the breakout rooms and cocktail hours, and the incredible faculty painting auction.
In case you missed it, here are some of our favorite moments from Plein Air Live:
Our Plein Air Live hosts, CEO & Publisher Eric Rhoads and PleinAir Magazine Editor-in-Chief Kelly KanePastel painter Lisa Skelly joined us with an outdoor demo from Laguna Beach. Fittingly, her session focused on how to paint the beautiful waves and surf, with a focus on composition, value structure, and shapes.Whether she’s working with watercolor or oils, Poppy Balser uses a similar limited palette. In her lesson, she took us on a deep dive into understanding color, including hue, chroma, and value, as she painted a still life of an onion from a photo reference with strong highlights and shadows.One of the easiest and cheapest things you can do as an artist is to sketch, said Zufar Bikbov. He added that it’s also one of the most important things you should do because if you can’t draw something, you probably won’t be able to paint it – especially if you want to create realistic art.Painting on a gray, 50-degree day, Tom Hughes gave us a demo from Pemequid Point in May, a location where he has painted for three decades. In 2019, Tom won the PleinAir Salon $15,000 Grand Prize at the Plein Air Convention and Expo.“It’s a lot of dripping, a lot of carving, and a lot of different ways to paint,” said Beth Bathe in her demo using water-mixable oils. She painted a boat scene from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Maryland.Plein air painting has been a form of study for hundreds of years, Don Demers said. In his session, he explained the transition from painting on location to advancing that work in the studio. As he referred to his plein air study, he assured us that although he’s been doing this for a long time, he still employs the basic techniques of composition and proportion.At Cavallo Point in Sausalito, California, Tim Horn said for Plein Air Live, he was inspired to paint a scene featuring this military house that was built around 1900 because of its classic architecture, red roof, and the warm white color of the building against the darker background.
Remember, the next online Live event is coming in September with Pastel Live, so visit PastelLive.com now to register and be with fellow artists online for days of demonstrations, Q&A with your favorite artists, and mingling during the breakout rooms and cocktail hours!
