Susan K Jones Fine Art Photography

A landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment…but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air, which varies continually… it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.”  – Claude Monet 

Plein air conjures up the romantic notion of Paris in the mid-19^th century; the lifestyle of Montmartre where the writers and artists of the day congregated and the Impressionist movement was born. While artists had painted outdoors for centuries, things began to change in 1830 with the Barbizon School followed by the Impressionists.

Prior to the 1840s, artists created rough sketches, drawings and small paintings outside, on location, to take back to the studio to use in creating large landscapes. These studies, or etudes, were painted quickly to capture the essence of a scene through the colors and mood of the location.

Then Winsor & Newton invented the collapsible tin paint tube in 1841. Moist watercolors and a collapsible easel known as the French box easel, followed, giving artists easy access to the materials they needed to create larger works outdoors. Tube paints contained an array of vibrant pigments contributing to innovative experiments in color theory, something the Impressionists are well known for.

The art movements that embraced plein air felt that painting en plein air was the only way to capture the natural light, shade and color of nature. Because plein air paintings are painted quickly, they often are created with loose brushstrokes and less detail, achieving the impression of open air and spontaneity. Plein air artists also abandoned traditional techniques of chiaroscuro, modeling, and perspective, creating deliberately informal compositions that captured a moment in time. Light became the subject of the painting as it changed the shapes and textures of the surroundings, showing the optical effects of light on the color of a landscape at any given moment. Artists, like Claude Monet, studied how the effects of light altered ones’ perception of the world by working on series of paintings of a singular subject, captured at different times of the day, over several days.

While plein air painting has never stopped, it had a resurgence in the 1980s and appears to be an unstoppable movement as tens of thousands of people around the world take up this art form. Some equate the current plein air movement to a lifestyle; one that is social, relaxing, meditative, mentally challenging, and stimulating. There can be challenges such as bugs, animals, weather, and inquisitive onlookers but if you are interested in spending time in nature painting, here are a few tips to get you started:

• Travel light – if you are just starting, colored pencils, pastels, or pan watercolors and a sketchbook are all you need
• Simplify your palette – you can create all the colors you need with cyan, magenta, yellow, indigo and white
• Use found water
• Bring bug spray
• Don’t wear sunglasses – they will alter your color perception; try a hat or a large white umbrella like the Impressionists used

Why black and white? Since the introduction of color photography, people have questioned the aesthetics of black and white. But artists in all media continue to return to a black and white palette with wonderous results.

Ask any child with a box of crayons if black and white are colors and they will invariably show you the crayons and wonder how you could be so blind. Physics however says they are not colors because they do not have a specific wavelength; white is all wavelengths and black is the absence of visible light.

Josef Albers felt that the scientific study of color had little practical value for artists because people filter color with their own conscious and subconscious associations. He said “This fact makes colour the most relative medium in art. In order to use colour effectively it is necessary to recognize that colour deceives continually.” He began his renowned study of color theory, how the perception of a color is altered by adjacent color, with black and white.

Students of design still work within Albers’ theories when learning the elements of design, beginning by creating the perfect gray scale. Removing color reduces the subject to its basic elements: contrast, shapes, and relationships. It removes distraction so that we see the skeleton of the work and any deficiencies in the design; strengthen the underlying design, add color back and you have a much more dynamic piece.

Pablo Picasso explored the use of a black and white palette throughout his life, creating extraordinarily complex and powerful works; purging color in order to highlight their formal structure. His most famous painting, Guernica, one of the most powerful antiwar paintings in history, was painted with black, white, and shades of gray. Picasso felt that a picture in colors was to be looked at, that black and white forces us to think. Guernica is intended to make the viewer imagine this terrible incident from the inside using the hidden truth of the psyche.

311 Gallery invited artists from across the country to share their explorations into the world of black and white. Their chosen media include acrylic, charcoal, chalk, clay, digital, etching, graphite, glass, gouache, ink, metals, mixed media, oil, pastel, photography, textile, watercolor, and wax. The works will draw you in and make you think.