Plenty of plein air to go around

The Adirondack region has become a hotbed for plein air painting events. Franklin County is home to three of them, including the original, nationally recognized, Adirondack Plein Air Festival in Saranac Lake, as well as the Keeseville Plein Air and Tupper Lake Plein Air Festival.

All plein air events scheduled for the northern Adirondacks this year include:

¯ June 10-17: Publisher’s Invitational

Adirondack Paint Week, Paul Smiths

¯ July 18-22: Keeseville Plein Air, as part of their Community Arts Festival.

¯ Aug 14-19: Adirondack Plein Air Festival, Saranac Lake

¯ Sept 13-16: Salmon River Valley

Plein Air Festival, Malone

¯ Sept 19-23: Adirondack Harvest

Plein Air Festival, Ticonderoga

¯ Sept 29-Oct 6: Plein Air Magazine

Fall color Week, Saranac Lake

¯ Oct 4-8: Tupper Lake Plein Air Festival, Tupper Lake

What is plein air painting? It is a French term that basically means painting out in the open air. Instead of painting for hours indoors in their studios, day or night, artists take their paints and easels to outdoor locations. Natural light and scenic views, whether wilderness or farmland, industrial or village locations, offer unlimited subject matter.

Plein air paintings have to be finished quickly because the lighting and weather can change in a few hours. So rather than having days or weeks to contemplate their work, plein air painters work much more intuitively, painting what they see very quickly.

Plein air painting isn’t just an Adirondack thing — a revival of interest in plein air painting began some 20-plus years ago. Small groups of artists often chose a location and went out and painted as a group, sharing the experience. Festivals, or painting competitions, developed as artists learned that their audiences enjoyed the idea of being able to watch an artist at work one day and then be able to purchase the wet, framed painting the next.

In 2009, Sandra Hildreth, a Saranac Lake painter and one of the founding members of Saranac Lake ArtWorks, organized the Adirondack Plein Air Festival, which started out with just a few local artists who painted for two days and then hung a show of their work on a Sunday afternoon. A few people came to see it. Now, after 15 years, the event has a national reputation, a juried selection process, five and a half days of painting, gives out over $5000 in prizes, and hosts a huge show and sale in the Harrietstown Town Hall in Saranac Lake. These events are for the artists, many of whom travel the country attending different festivals, as well as art collectors and spectators.

The Keeseville, Malone and Tupper

An artist paints at the Saranac Lake Fish & Game Club

Lake festivals were all modeled after the Saranac Lake event and have no trouble attracting artists who want to paint the Adirondack landscapes, from the High Peaks, to the foothills, from mountain lakes to river valleys. Ticonderoga has its own history of hosting the Adirondack Harvest Festival in September.

The Publisher’s Invitational Adirondack Paint Week and the Fall Color Week event are entirely different. They were organized by Plein Air Magazine, a direct result of the fact that the publisher has a second home in the Adirondacks. They are more like summer camps for artists. Both are set up to host 100 artists who come simply for a week of painting and camaraderie. For the June event, artists will be housed in the dorms at Paul Smiths College. For Fall Color Week, they will be at the Saranac Village Young Life facility. There is no competition, no prizes, no exhibits — just artists going out in small groups to explore and paint. Spectators are welcome at all the plein air festivals and most will have schedules or specific locations where the artists can be found, at least some of the time.

The exhibits, however, attract the most attention. Forty artists can frequently do at least two paintings a day, for five days, resulting in a show of more than 400 paintings. Large, small, oil, watercolor, acrylic, pastels, in a full range of subject matter. And yet they will all be unique.

The festivals may also have secondary events as part of their schedules: meet the artists receptions, silent auctions of donated works, nocturne paintings (done at night), and quick draw competitions. It is best to check the schedules of the individual events.

To learn more about these events, visit SaranacLakeArtWorks.org and go to the Plein Air home page.

What makes plein air painting special?

By Diane Leifheit

A plein air painting is an art work that, for the most part, is made outside, not in the studio. A plein air painter brings a lightweight set-up to venture into the out of doors, “en plein air” as the French say. A portable easel, a canvas or board, paints brushes, bug repellent, good shoes, a hat are standard, and a snack and the ubiquitous water bottle are a must.

There are all kinds of eventualities the plein air artist has to be ready for — a sunny day that turns rainy, or the wind comes up and wants to knock down the easel, or critters, from barking dogs to black flies — all just to paint outside. The end vision one sees is the effort of lots of planning. The colors of the Adirondack summer or the orange, red, gold of fall beg for different palettes, so the painter needs to prep their box of color for what they will see for the daily excursion into the woods and streams or perhaps the streets of town.

There is always that other animal too that may approach the painter, the curious passerby. At that point it may be time for a break, so there is a bit of chitchat about painting and aunts that paint and this other great place to paint.

What really makes it special, though, is being outdoors in the sun, in the air, painting what is of interest to the artist. The sparkle of light on water, cool shadows in the woods, that red umbrella on the beach, the way Adirondack chairs sit just so on the dock.

A painting made en plein air is not a photograph that captures only an instant, but about three to four hours of time, many blinks of an eye, clouds and sun moving, shifting shadows — a million different decisions that culminate in the final piece. The work may not be completed in one day but it usually is because it is rare the weather will hold its breath for 48 hours.

What makes a plein air painting special is it catches the day, the time, the place. It is one of a kind. In this day and age, that is a rare occurrence.