If, like me, you’re still settling back at home after a fun-filled week in the Smokies for the 11th Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE), I thought you might enjoy a few highlights of our time together. If you missed the event this year, we hope these photos and stories inspire you to join us next May in … Lake Tahoe!
Starting Off on the Right Foot
From Online to In-Person at the Plein Air Convention
First-timer Gretchen Wurth said she knew she had to come to the Plein Air Convention when it was announced that the location is practically in her backyard; her husband even insisted on it after seeing her enthusiasm for Plein Air Live, Realism Live, and Watercolor Live. “I’m just so excited,” she said. “I’m overwhelmed to be here because it’s so cool to meet and talk with everybody that you see online, including Eric Rhoads.”
She added that even before PACE officially began, it felt welcoming and friendly, even though she was intimidated at first because of all the “big players” here, including some amazing artists from around the country and even the world.
Paint Outs
Picture this: You look in one direction and spot a cool, burbling river running alongside a forested valley trail; or turn in the other direction and enjoy a view of a golden, open field at the base of tree-covered mountains leading up to a perfect white-cloud sky. This was the choice our attendees had at Day 2 of the Plein Air Convention last week.
Joining the hundreds of us there was also a fly fisherman (perfect for adding a figure to the landscape), roaming chickens, and even majestic elk at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center of the Great Smoky Mountains in Cherokee, North Carolina.
After another full morning and afternoon of painting demonstrations across five stages on Day 3, we headed outdoors for another opportunity to put into practice everything – or at least something! – we learned. Charter buses took many artists to the charming Darnell Farms, and others headed to the Oconaluftee Indian Village & Cherokee Botanical Gardens to paint.
On Day 4, we returned to Darnell Farms in Bryson City, North Carolina. Despite a healthy downpour, attendees found a variety of scenes to inspire them.
Pastel Demos
Here are a few highlights from the pastel stage (all pastel, all the time!):
With years of easel miles, Lyn Diefenbach showed us how she constructs a painting from a fairly ordinary photo by using methods she developed en plein air. She talked tactics for composition and the importance of values, edges, and color relationships, as well as translating the energy seen in the subject into a painterly rhythm.
Jacob Aguiar took us through his process for painting atmosphere and distant mountains. Beginning with a local color underpainting, he discussed color choices to achieve particular atmospheric effects, and finished with specific mark-making approaches.
In his “Alpine Splendor” demo, Aaron Schuerr revisited one of his favorite spots — a mountain meadow high in the Spanish Peaks of Montana. He demonstrated how to juxtapose simplified forms to create pleasing relationships, how to carefully rearrange a scene to emphasize scale and distance, and how to contrast a warmly lit peak with a shadowy foreground to create the drama of a moment.
Every pastel color has more than one color to it, and in plein air, lighter pastel colors will look darker, and dark colors will look lighter (and you will have at least twice that number of colors in your plein air box). Albert Handell demonstrated how to apply this using a dramatic desert sky as a subject.
William A. Schneider showed how a few simple strokes can make your paintings sing! By incorporating impressionistic figures into your landscape or cityscape, you will add movement, scale, narrative, and drama. William demonstrated several “hacks” to create believable figures. He also showed how to avoid the three errors artists often make when first trying to integrate figures into their paintings.
A stronger start leads to a more successful finish! Karen Margulis has simplified the plein air process and shared her three no-fail methods for starting a pastel painting. Karen also shared tools to overcome the challenges of plein air with pastel, including how to narrow your focus and how to avoid overworking your paintings.
Join us next year for the 12th Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo – you don’t want to miss it!
