In plein view
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Jose J. Santos
PAINT THE BACK BAY
This week, artists from all over Southern California will set up
their easels in the Back Bay and try to capture the natural
surroundings with quick measured brush strokes.
The Paint the Back Bay event begins today and concludes next
weekend with a public exhibition of the work created throughout the
week The public is invited to check out the 81 artists create in the
outdoor setting all week long.
The exhibition at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center will
be free, and artwork from 59 of the artists will be for sale. A
student exhibition will also be held.
There will also be a Many Moods of the Back Bay gala on Friday,
celebrating the work created. The gala at the interpretive center
will feature dinner, art and music. A limited number of tickets are
available for $95.
The events are co-sponsored by the Southern California Plein Air
Painters Assn. and the Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends, a
volunteer organization that provides preservation and education about
the wetlands. All proceeds from the gala and 30% of the receipts
collected from the art sale will benefit the Back Bay preservation
program.
SCHEDULE
* Paint the Back Bay event
WHEN: Today to Friday, every day until sunset
* Many Moods of the Back Bay gala
WHEN: Friday, from 6 to 9 p.m.
* Fine Art and Student Art Exhibition
WHEN: Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 28, from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
All events will take place at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive
Center, 2301 University Drive, Newport Beach. For more information
and to purchase gala tickets, call (949) 923-2269.
PLEIN BEGINNINGS
The simple act of walking outside spawned an art movement.
Plein air is a much-practiced art discipline in Southern
California. The artists who will set up easels to paint the Back Bay
this week are following a tradition that began in France, said Jean
Stern, executive director of the Irvine Museum.
Stern will jury the painting competition at the end of the Paint
the Back Bay event and is an authority on California impressionism,
the academic name given to plein air painting in the state.
But what exactly is plein air painting? Stern offers some history:
‘Open air’
Plein air is a French phrase that means “open air.” Plein air
painters paint the outdoors, an act that was considered very
revolutionary when the painters of the Barbizon school first did it
in the mid-1800s. Artists had been confined to the studio for
hundreds of years because paint was kept in pots that needed to be
hot, Stern said. With the advent of modern paint tubes, artists were
able to take it to the streets.
“If you’re trying to catch beautiful natural light, it’s better to
be in that light,” Stern said. Painters began trying to capture life
as it was happening. Successful plein air art captures the feeling of
natural light, Stern said.
Big time
The Barbizon painters were the first, but Monet and the French
impressionists made plein air art famous in the late 1800s. The
movement made its way to California in the 1890s. For 20 years, the
movement flourished primarily in Laguna Beach with the advent of the
California Art Club.
“The artists were trying to record a vanishing Eden in
California,” Stern said.
Early plein air artists not only provided beautiful landscape
paintings but also a historical record of what the land looked like
before it was developed.
Fighting the clock
Plein air painters need to control the tools of their craft, Stern
said. Because they only have a small window of time, they need to
capture color correctly the first time it is applied to the canvas.
“The painters need to be very good with color, and quick with
design and composition,” Stern said. “That takes years to develop.”
Today’s artists are meeting the same challenges of 100 years ago,
he said.
“Nature is the teacher. The model is in front of your eyes,” Stern
said. “The artists are pretty well wedded to the idea that they are
going to paint what they see.”
Mass appeal
There is a great universal appeal to the outdoor paintings because
its subject is something everyone can identify with: nature. The
California plein air artists look to the nature around them and then
turn it into art. The viewer can then realize that the ordinary world
around them is the inspiration for that art.
This is a lesson children can benefit from especially, Stern said.
“There is a very high psychic and spiritual value to learn to see
beauty around us,” he said.
READY FOR ACTION
The Back Bay is special to artist Anita E. Plummer.
The place was the setting of her first date with her husband, and
continues to be one of the inspirations for her work.
Plummer is one of 81 artists participating in the Paint the Back
Bay event this week. She will be there today through Friday trying to
find that perfect moment to capture on her canvas.
“I love the challenge,” the lifelong artist said. “I love the
physical activity of moving equipment.”
Plummer shared the basics of painting in the outdoors:
Tools of the artist
Plummer has to be mobile when she’s painting, but there’s still a
lot of tools she has at her disposal. She has four different easels,
all of them basically a box sitting on top of a tripod. She also
carries her tubes of paint, a palette, six or seven brushes, paint
thinner, a brush washer, paper towels, a hat and umbrella to provide
shade, her camera and bug spray.
Basic colors
“I have done a basic painting with just seven tubes of paint,”
Plummer said. When she is working with basic colors, she uses a
green, red, blue, white, black and two shades of yellow. From those
colors, she is able to generate the subtle shades the natural
environment contains.
Plummer considers herself a colorist, an artist who is good at
accurately capturing hues and natural shades. Even though she
occasionally limits her palette, she prefers to work with lots of
colors.
Setting the scene
Plummer usually works in one of three canvas sizes. Good
composition is important to her painting.
“Traditionally, a setting would have atmosphere,” Plummer said.
The artist will try to set up her painting with a background (the
mountains or an ocean horizon), a middle ground (in the Back Bay,
this would be pools of water) and a subject in the foreground (rocks
or plant life).
“It’s important to be comfortable and work with shade on your
palette and your painting surface,” Plummer said.
Working quickly
Plummer will take about two hours to do a painting. She said she
follows a rhythm of painting, wiping her brush and then painting some
more.
Part of the challenge of this type of painting is its
unpredictable nature. Plummer has faced many obstacles when painting
outdoors: strong winds, rocky terrain, rain and even a beehive.
“You take those challenges, and you go with them,” Plummer said.
Pure joy
Plein air painting is very addicting, Plummer said. There is a joy
she gets from finishing a painting that lets her know she was meant
to be an artist, she said.
She has her sketchbook with her always and is always exploring
ideas for what her next painting will be. She’s up early in the
morning and will work until the sunlight fades in the evening.
“I don’t want to waste a day,” she said.
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