Plein Air Paintings

It is important for every artist to spend time painting on-location aka Plein Air. This allows them time to re-connect with the landscape. This connection strengthens the artist's intuition that is used later (in the studio) to make better decisions of color, edges, contrast, depth, symbols, etc. I regard the plein air time as a training aid to make me become a better painter. I view my plein air paintings as a short story or quick description of the vision I am experiencing. These paintings, or others like them, will be a guide for me to later develop a more complex painting, but ... not to allow detail to replace the true essence that I captured in the plein air study. Thus the true beauty of a plein air painting is their "simply elegant" quality.

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