People have been asking about my next art class and here it is!  I’d love to introduce Plein Air | Taking Art Outside.  It’s a mini-class (about two hours of content), so the early bird pricing is just $18!

For those unfamiliar with the term “Plein Air”, it means “in the open air” and refers to painting or drawing outside.  It’s a way of creating art made famous by the Impressionist artists and has grown from there.  When Jeanne asked me about teaching a plein air online class for her site, my first thought was that I was the wrong person to teach this class!  There are artists who specialize in plein-air painting, but I always remind myself that teaching rarely happens from a final destination.  It occurs on a journey and my perspective and the experience I’ve gained so far might be helpful, especially for those who want to grow in the area of landscape painting in oils.  I was pushed into doing more plein air painting when I was without a studio last summer during our move and I gained so much from that experience and have continued to pack up my gear to make studies outside.

For me, plein-air painting isn’t about producing a final work.  It’s about observing, studying, and interacting with nature.  It’s about capturing the moment and the place, so I especially love to do it when I travel.  Making it about the experience takes the pressure off and I can just enjoy the process and take it back to the studio with me to create better art.  And this is exactly what I cover in the online course, Plein Air.

Here is a video promo to give you an idea of what we’ll cover…

We’ll cover the materials, tools, and packing for plein air painting.  I’ll share the details of my limited palette and my favorite brushes as well as some of my favorite books for plain-air inspiration.  We’ll do some thumbnail value sketches from photos…

…play around with mixing blues and greens for landscape painting…

…and do a few studies outside on location.  I’ll share all of the reference photos of my location so you can create your own sketches, studies, and works of that valley.

I’ll take the studies back to my studio so we can do a finished painting together, utilizing what we learned from painting plein air.

It’s really a fun class that is perfect for the summer when the greens of the landscape are showing off and the weather is nice for plein air painting.  As with all Jeanne Oliver classes, there is a community for the course where you can share your work, ask questions, and learn from your peers in the class.  The class goes live on July 28, 2023, and then the price will increase to $32. Let me know if you have any questions, but I hope I’ll see you in the course community!

If you’re interested in checking out my previous classes with Jeanne Oliver, you can find them below…

The Atelier  – Creating in different mediums with a limited color palette 

Alla Prima – Painting still life in oils

And, I’m working on putting together a Patreon page for art to launch in the fall so we can paint, draw, and study together each month.  As I’ve been thinking about teaching future art classes, this feels like the best way to share what I’m working on and learning in real-time.  I’ll offer a mix of pre-recorded tutorials as well as live painting sessions.  I’ll share more on that soon!