I started The Plein Air Scene * in December of 1997, at the request of a friend who had recently started collecting plein air paintings. She wanted to know where she could see the work of local painters. That one-page letter has grown into a 14-16 page publication with color inserts and a nation-wide mailing list which includes collectors, artists, museums, galleries and painting lovers. The Plein Air Scene magazine reports on all of the plein-air painting news in California, as well as some out-of-state goings on.

I had been a modest collector of plein air paintings over the years even before I knew exactly what they were. When the prices started skyrocketing during the 1980's, I began collecting the works of more affordable contemporary regional painters and the rest, as they say is history. In addition to publishing the magazine and the Web site, I teach a course on California Impressionism (see the "Classes" link on this site) and conduct studio tours in Northern California.

The Plein Air Scene is a bi-monthly (every other month) magazine sent by U.S. mail. Features includes, biographical stories in the artist’s own words, current quips on painters and news items, a column by and for painters exchanging views and techniques, a new Featured Artist each edition, a comprehensive and current listing of plein air shows around the State, show and paintout reviews, features on Early California plein air painters, hot art web sites, workshops and much more. The companion Web site where you are right now highlights one or two articles from the magazine each issue as well as new show listings every month in our "Shows" section

* What is Plein Air Painting?

“Plein air” means “out-of-doors” in French.  Painting “en plein air” can be traced to an engraving from about 1630 depicting a painter at work in the open air.  Plein air painting was fully in bloom by 1800 in and around Rome. Corot was there twice in the 1820’s.  In England, Constable was working outside doing completed paintings by about 1815.   In 1842, Winsor Newton introduced the collapsible painting tube which made it much easier for painters to eschew the studio for the great outdoors.  The French Impressionists took advantage of the new technology to capture fleeting scenes of nature. 

Generally speaking, plein air paintings are completed out-of-doors.  Traditionally, these “sketches” were not meant to be finished works, but were used by the artist as aids in producing larger, more finished works back in the studio.  Today the term “plein air” generally means a painting completed outside or completed mostly out-of-doors and finished in the studio.  From the first painters in Rome, to the Barbizon painters in the forest of Fontainebleau, the French Impressionists and later the American Impressionists, the movement reached its zenith in California when painters established colonies in Pasadena, Laguna, Carmel and other regions. 

During the “Golden Age of California Impressionism” from approximately 1900-1930, California produced such notables as Guy Rose, William Wendt, Seldon Gile, E. Charlton Fortune and hundreds of others.  Many books have been published on these painters whose paintings sell today – in some cases – in the high six figures.  For books on these painters go to our Links page.

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