Annual Plein Air art exhibit

This evening, Friday, November 20, a plein air group I belong to PAPO (Plein Air Painters of the Ozark) is having artist reception at the Visit Bentonville which is in Downtown Bentonville, Arkansas.

Please click to play video ~

"En plein air (French pronunciation) or plein air painting, is a phrase borrowed from the French equivalent meaning "open (in full) air". " ~ Wikipedia

They tend to be smaller paintings.... 4"x6" - to whatever size the artist chooses.  Common sizes are 4x6, 6x8, 8x10, etc.  The tradition is the artists paint as much as they can while at the location and call it good.  Some use the paintings as studies for a bigger paintings they plan to produce in their studio with the help perhaps of some photos they took.  I often paint on location, take photos, and finish the piece in my studio.  I also occasionally embellish my final results by adding people, etc. A local artist I highly respect made a statement I can't forget. Fred Betz declared that "Every landscape needs something that poops!"  Since that time it's been very difficult for me to leave a landscape painting without adding something two-legged or 4-legged!

Some of the paintings at the PAPO show 2015

Plein air pieces I tackle are fairly manageable sizes so I usually go ahead and frame them myself, mostly to save on expenses.  It's not because I take joy in handling a whole different set of tools from my paint brushes to hammer and electrical things at all, since I am extremely bad with measuring and numbers and I am always in danger of damaging the painting because I am mostly working with one arm!  Those wires in the back don't ever satisfy me at all because they're never as tight as I'd like them to be.  Still I'm definitely grateful that I can do it at all and as I said, to cut back on expenses and keep the prices more reasonable.

So I thought I'd go ahead and create short video of what it takes to prepare for this art show.  I'm sure fellow artists would say it's still a very limited depiction of what we had to do.  For instance, it took a couple hours designing the installation; moving the paintings all over with people climbing up and down the ladder.  This was all before the title cards were organized with great precision and exhibit statement was written up.  I must say the group did a mighty fine job to get us ready for the curtain call!

Plein Air to Farmer's Market 2015

"Bentonville Farmer's Market" 8x10 oil on canvas

I hosted the first paint out with PAPO (Plein Air Painters of the Ozark) this year.  We had it at Downtown Bentonville.  It was so spring fresh with bright green leaves on the trees and grounds and the tulips in multiple colors all over the square!  

 I decided to capture the monument and fountain which was full of tulips and the courthouse in the background.

Karolyn Ferrell and Erika Nelson photo by Cindy Ho

There are more photos from the event at this link PAPO  At lunch I decided not to join the group for lunch and headed home because I wasn't feeling well and the weather changing to the forecast-ed stormy afternoon.

This is how my painting evolved with final version as farmer's market shown on top of my palette above.

Underpainting of my piece

Erika Nelson's original plein air piece April 8, 2015

But I decided it needed to look like how I most enjoy the square - with the farmer's market going on, on a Saturday morning, with vendors and people and performers around it.  We all had a great day!