Introduction to Plein-Air Painting

Introduction to Plein-Air Painting

Have you ever been to a museum and seen beautiful paintings of landscapes that feel lively and seemingly glow with light? Or seen Monet’s haystacks, painted in different lighting scenarios? Or maybe every April, you get confused as to why every artist seems to be doing a daily environment painting challenge? These are all considered Plein Air paintings! Plein air painting derives from the French term “en plein air,” which means “in the open air.”

Simply, Plein air painting is the act of painting an environment/landscape from life, outdoors! Plein air painting began when oil paint tubes were invented in the 1800s, allowing for artists to carry their paints with them outside of their studios. However, it wasn’t until the rise of impressionism and artists like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and many more that plein-air painting began climbing in popularity. Monet in particular contributed significantly to plein-air painting, with his Haystacks series and Rouen Cathedral series highlighting the benefits and strengths of plein air painting, in which he captured the same scene at different times of day. These paintings used beautiful colors outside of the ordinary studio landscapes, further illustrating how plein air painting can yield varying vibrancies and energetic results.

For plein air paintings, artists use many different materials. Watercolor, gouache, acrylic, oil paint——there are many different mediums that can be used! In this article, I will primarily discuss what I consider to be the most common mediums: gouache paint and oil paint. Oil paints have been used for decades to create landscape paintings. With bold pigments, slow drying time, and different additives that can be used to change the consistency and effect of the paint, it allows easy control of edges and many layers that create a painting with lots of interest and depth.

However, some cons of oil painting are the sheer amount of materials you need, such as different brushes, different gels, and brush cleaner. Additionally, the paint can be very toxic, so gloves are recommended, as well as oil paint typically being messier and more difficult to carry with you. This can make plein air painting with oil paint very difficult, especially if you need to hike or walk long distances to your chosen spot. If oil painting is too high of a commitment or too much of a hassle, I’d recommend looking into water-based mediums. My ideal plein air medium of choice is gouache. Gouache is a water based medium with a consistency often described as an “inbetween” of watercolor and acrylic. I prefer using gouache for plein air since it is more convenient to transport, the paint can be reactivated, and it has a quick drying time. However, compared to oil paint you often have to work with a smaller canvas size/paper size with gouache, as it takes much longer to create bigger pieces in gouache than oil paint. My favorite gouache brands include Holbein, Winsor and Newton Designer Gouache, and Knicker’s gouache.

While you don’t necessarily need an easel to plein air paint as many artists simply sit on the ground with their materials, it does make the process a bit more convenient and efficient.

The two main easel types used are French easels and pochade boxes. French easels are a giant box easel that can be set up to stand and typically has a drawer. These easels are perfect for artists that want to work larger en plein air as they can support significantly large canvas sizes. However, the biggest downside of these easels is portability. They are extremely inconvenient to walk around with as the size can be clunky and the weight being heavier.

On the other hand, Pochade boxes are smaller box easels that attach to a tripod. They typically have a small palette area and support smaller canvas sizes. Some cons of pochade boxes include having to purchase an additional tripod, as well as not being able to work larger. I personally use a pochade box, specifically the brand Cupeasel which is a modified, speciality easel targeted for plein air painting.

The surface you work on largely depends on personal preference and what medium you are using. For oil painting, typically a primed canvas board, gesso board, or linen is used. For gouache, watercolor paper, bristol board, or mixed media paper is the standard. I myself use the Hahnemule watercolor sketchbooks for plein air, as most of my plein air use is for studies.

When outside, you want to make sure you are significantly protected against the elements! Make sure you wear a hat, apply sunscreen, and wear bug spray! I also encourage wearing longer pants and long socks to prevent any bugs from crawling up on you. Some additional protective gear you could use is a clamp umbrella. For particularly sunny days, I sometimes will pull out an umbrella that clamps to my easel to provide shade over my piece (this is important as direct sunlight can affect the values of your painting). However, umbrellas are very finicky, as wind can make your whole painting setup blow over.

Once you have gathered your materials, find a spot to paint en plein air! Try to find an area that interests you and has a strong composition both in place of objects and value contrast. I tend to try and find compositions following a few simple rules of thumb, such as the rule of thirds or composition with good eye movement, such as the compositions shown in Edgar Payne’s Landscape Painting book.

For values, I mainly think about three things: the notan, or overall dark and light value structure of my composition; contrast, or how different my lights and darks are in the areas of my focal point; and the lack of contrast for areas I want lost or to have atmospheric perspective. Values will make or break your painting, and if you don't have a strong value structure, your piece will lose clarity and become a jumbled mess.

When picking out what paint tubes to use, try to use a limited palette of 4- 6 colors. This is because it will naturally create a sense of harmony. When you have too many colors, it creates chaos and often makes a muddy, confusing color palette. For beginners using gouache, I highly recommend using cyan, magenta, yellow, and white to start out. For many of my early gouache paintings, those were the only tubes I used.

Now that you have chosen your location and set up your materials, begin painting! My process includes using a thin layer of gouache to set up a ground or underpainting. This is so the color can bleed into my other colors and peek through my painting, creating an interesting sense of light and unity within my colors. I then typically take a color pencil and begin loosely sketching out my scene, thinking about my compositional rules of thumb and making sure I have a clear sense of foreground, middle ground, background, and perspective. The color pencil adds subtle color notes that may come through due to human error in brushwork. Then I will begin mixing and laying my colors in either of two processes depending on the scene. Sometimes, I will start by painting the sky or whatever is furthest in the back and painting back to front, making sure to put the most detail in the focal point. Most often, however, I will start with the back and then begin moving around my canvas, laying in my darkest darks and my lightest lights to quickly see my value structure and sense of light, allowing me to place down my scene as a whole.

When getting started with the painting process, I recommend starting with the biggest brush possible, and then slowly using smaller brushes, such as larger flat brushes into smaller flats and rounds. This is to avoid getting stuck up on details and simplifying the scene. Simplification is the name of the game in the plein air process, as you want to get a good impression of the environment before adding detail. Detail everywhere is chaotic, but detail in a controlled setting creates an interesting, easy-to-breathe painting.

Plein air painting is difficult! It can be very frustrating and overstimulating, as not only may you be fighting your materials, but you are also fighting the outside world! The light changes rapidly, there are so many litter colors, shapes, and values to get distracted by, and sometimes you might even get rained on or sunburnt! But ultimately, with practice and some getting used to it, plein air painting can be an amazing way to grow your skills in capturing color and light, as well as simply grounding yourself in the world in a time where everything is done on a screen. I hope with the tips I provided, you will find a good foundation to begin your plein air journey!