Plein Air Painting

What is Plein Air painting?

Plein Air painting is when the artist leaves their studio behind and experiences painting and drawing in the landscape. The practice goes back for centuries but was truly made into an art form by the French Impressionists. Their desire to paint light and its changing, ephemeral qualities, coupled with the creation of transportable paint tubes and the box easel—the precursor to the plein air easels of today—allowed artists the freedom to paint “en plein air,” which is the French expression for “in the open air.”

Painting on location in Antigua.

Painting on location in the Outer Banks.

Painting on location in the NJ Botanical Gardens.

Painting on location in the NJ Highlands.

Painting on location in Ringwood Manor State Park.

What’s so special about Plein Air Painting?

Plein air painting is an attempt to capture a fleeting moment as it unfolds within the landscape—an impression of light, atmosphere, color, and time. Because these elements are constantly changing, the artist must respond with a sense of immediacy, often capturing effects that may exist for only a few moments. The urgency of working directly from nature, combined with spontaneous brushwork and the freshness of rapidly applied paint, gives plein air paintings an energy and vitality that can be felt by the viewer.

For me, however, plein air painting is much more than simply capturing what I see. Each painting becomes a deeply personal visual diary—a record not only of a place, but of a particular moment in my life. When I return to my plein air sketches, I am transported back to the time and place in which they were created. The sensations of that experience come flooding back: the quality of the light, the atmosphere, the sounds and surroundings, and even the events of the day. In many ways, I can relive the moment as vividly as if it were unfolding before me once again.

For many people, photographs serve as a way of preserving and revisiting memories. For me, they pale in comparison to the memories that emerge from a painting made directly in the landscape. When I paint outdoors, I am not simply observing my surroundings—I am actively participating in them. I become aware of the changing light, the movement of the atmosphere, the space around me, and the sensory details of the place. This active engagement creates a deeper connection to the experience, forming memories that are not purely visual but spatial, physical, and emotional.

Although plein air paintings are sometimes considered sketches or studies for larger studio works, I see them as complete experiences in their own right. Each painting preserves a particular moment in time while carrying within it something of the experience surrounding its creation. In this way, a plein air painting becomes more than an image of a landscape. It becomes a vessel for memory—a personal record of having been there, seeing it, and experiencing it in that particular moment.

Perhaps this is part of what makes these paintings meaningful to live with. A plein air painting can bring a particular place and moment into our everyday surroundings, but it can also leave space for our own experiences to enter the work. A landscape might recall a place we have visited, a season we remember, or simply a feeling of being outdoors. Over time, our relationship with the painting may change as new memories and associations become attached to it.

For me, that is one of the enduring qualities of plein air painting. It is not simply about reproducing a landscape, but about preserving an experience of being present within it. The painting carries something of that moment forward, allowing both the artist and the viewer to return to it in their own way.

What materials do I use for Plein Air Painting?

I use a Julian Full French Easel and a Cappaletto Sonia Field Easel. Check out the video below where I demonstrate how I have streamlined my Cappaletto Sonia Field Easel for efficiency and portability.

What is the landscape palette of colors you use called?

The landscape palette of colors I use is called DuMond’s Prismatic palette and it was created by none other than Frank Vincent DuMond.

This innovative palette was arranged to reflect how colors behave in relation to distance: warm hues like yellow, orange, and red dominate close objects, while cooler tones such as blue and violet become more pronounced in distant landscapes. DuMond guided his students to recognize this progression of prismatic light through pre-mixed paints, which were carefully organized in a tonal spectrum moving from yellow to violet on the warm side, and from yellow to green to blue-green to violet on the cool side.

His meticulously constructed prismatic palette featured three distinct strings, each containing eight equal steps or values of gray, blue, and green oil paint. This system was designed to simplify the complex challenge of landscape painting for beginners, allowing them to sharpen their observations of color and value relationships in nature. Through these innovations, DuMond has left a lasting legacy in both artistry and instructional methods. DuMond is celebrated not just for his skillful depictions of American Impressionist landscapes and figures, but also for his remarkable impact as an educator within American Art History.