A FREE Plein Air Painting Handout

This is about a FREE Plein Air Painting Handout by Michael Chesley Johnson - a very experienced American plein air painter and instructor in oils and soft pastels of repute.

His CV is impressive - see below to check out the credentials of the chap who is providing this handout for free.

He says 

This is the handout I give to my all-level plein air painting workshops. Although it covers only oil and pastel, the methods and information apply to all media. (Watercolor is a bit different, though!)

I'm not going to include the link to it here - however I will include 

• the link to the page that the handout is on - on his website
• the link to his Substack - which also includes a link which takes you to the website link above!

Content of the Plein Air Painting Handout

The headings and subheadings are:

MATERIALS

• Pastel: Basic materials and Procedures
• Oils: Basic materials and Procedures
• Note for acrylic painters

You’d think that, over 25 years, the handout would need updating, but I’ve found “how to paint” consists of some basic principles that, like the laws of phyics, don’t change. The only thing that might change are some of the products listed (which I have updated for this release.)

PLEIN AIR METHODS, TECHNIQUES & TIPS

• Purpose in Plein Air
• Principals to Capturing the Landscape Quickly & Accurately
• How to Paint - Not Draw
• Plein Air Tips (which are excellent! KT)
• Different Approaches to Interpreting Landscape Values
• Dominance & Contrasting Pairs
• Finding Color Harmony
• Color Harmonies
• To Match Any Color
• About Black
• Useful Resources for the Plein Air Painter

You can find his handout here

Paintings in the South West Gallery on Michael Chesley Johnson's website
- the application of media and techniques to landscape
Note how they all "read" really well even in a thumbnail version

About Michael Chesley Johnson AIS PAPNM

I'm going to use the words from his "about" page and will add a few bullet points and a few extra words!

Basically he is an all round "good guy" in terms of being a plein air painter and helping others to become one too - through a variety of channels.

What does he do?

• He paints primarily outdoors in oil, pastel or gouache, choosing locations from the American Southwest, Downeast Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. 
• He has been invited repeatedly to national plein air events:
• most recently was on the distinguished faculty of the annual Plein Air Convention & Expo in Denver, Colorado.
• He delivers plein air painting workshops across the U.S. 
• He is a frequent writer for 
• The Artist’s Magazine, 
• Pastel Journal, 
• Watercolor Artist and 
• PleinAir Magazine, 
• He is also the author of several books, including Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air.

Recognition and Awards

• Awarded Master Pastellist status by Pastel Artists Canada in 2008
• Signature Member of 
• the American Impressionist Society and 
• Plein Air Painters of New Mexico 
• plus a past signature member of several national organizations. (Read here to learn why I let these memberships lapse.) 
• Featured in The Artist’s Magazine in September 2013.
• His paintings 
• have appeared in many magazines 
• are in both corporate and private collections. 

Website:    https://www.mchesleyjohnson.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mchesleyjohnsonstudio

Substack:  https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/ 

• you can subscribe on this page https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/about

UPDATED: Michael Chesley Johnson FREE Plein Air Primer

Michael Chesley Johnson is a landscape painter ( in oils and pastels) and an author. He's been painting and blogging two months longer than me - having started in Autumn 2025.

He also writes for magazines like Artists Magazine and Pastel Journal. He's the author of some books, including Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air

I'm very happy to recommend Michael as an artist worth reading on the topic of plein air painting. He's very experienced and he produces good plein air artwork.

However, the purpose of this blog post changed half way through writing. It's about 

• making you aware you can read his Plein Air Primer for free
• making sure you read the conditions VERY CAREFULLY.
  

EXCEPT that Michael has now worked out what went wrong - and everything is now OK.  So this blog post now reads

• Primer for Plein Air - just click a link and read the whole post for FREE
• The UPDATED VERSION (what went wrong)
• the ORIGINAL VERSION - kept as a salutary reminder that these platforms can catch out even the best of intentions

Primer for Plein Air by Michael Chesley Johnson

Michael has made his Plein Air Primer available for free on his Substack - and this post tells you how to access it! Which means a bit of unpacking of what exactly "free" means.

In these articles, I’ve distilled much of my plein air practice. With plein air painting season just around the corner, I hope you find them useful—whether you’re a beginner or an old pro

Strictly speaking, this is a FREE with "a 7 day free trial". Which should be sufficient to get through all 7 articles - listed below.

• Part 1: Gear - What do you need for an easel or a paint box?
• Part 2: Tools and Stuff - What should I take?
• Part 3: Paints, Pastels and Papers - You don't need more than a few colors.
• Part 4: Setting a Goal - Don't go out without one!
• Part 5: Location and Picking a Subject - Location is everything.
• Part 6: Making a Proper Value Sketch - Making a preliminary value sketch is waste of time, right? Wrong.
• Part 7: Making a Painting - The final installment of the series

THE UPDATED VERSION

You can now read the entire post for free just by clicking the links above.

This is the email I got from Michael explaining what had gone wrong - which means it's now OK to click any of the links above and you will automatically 

This is Michael's explanation of what went wrong

First of all, thanks so much for the review in your Making a Mark blog—and also for pointing out that my “free” plein air primer posts are free for only 7 days and that they require you to provide an email address! That was not my intention at all.

I originally had set those posts for paid subscribers only, but had a change of heart and decided to make them free. I made the change and tested it by logging out; I was then able to view them in their entirety without having to provide an email address.

What changed things, however, was another setting lurking in the background. This setting lets you turn all free posts older than a month into “paid” posts—and because the plein air primer posts are over a month old, Substack reset them to paid-only. Yikes!

I have now turned off that particular setting and have tested it again, and everything looks fine, working as I planned. No one should have to give an email address to read these for free.

As for the GDPR law, Substack, unfortunately, doesn’t have a setting for this. However, this morning I’ve put in place a TOS/Privacy Policy and have also set the system so that new subscribers will need to go through a double-opt-in, confirming their email address.

Thanks again for the review and pointing out the problem.

THE ORIGINAL VERSION: What you need to do

UPDATE (23 Feb 2026): Apparently I have spotted an unintended problem with the posts ( as identified above)

You have to 

• set up an account in Substack (which is always a good idea) and 
• then subscribe to his Substack. Over on the right is the option to subscribe for free. HOWEVER.......

WHAT IT USED TO SAY: NO LONGER APPLICABLE - BUT WORK KEEPING FOR OTHER SUBSTACK USERS WHO MIGHT ALSO BE CAUGHT OUT!

The thing is I'm not a big fan of things that promise stuff for free - with a catch - i.e. you  then find out 

• you have to subscribe for free and sign up to a subscription which is going to charge you £41 for an annual subscription every year  (which it doesn't tell you on the blue advert)
• unless you cancel - which you can at any time.

That's because I'm one of those people who has to cancel straight away, because I know I'll forget to cancel in 7 days and I don't EVER give my credit card data away for free.

Plus I don't mind giving my email away - just so long as I can also refuse further communications and am not going to have to pay for anything.

Strictly speaking, I think of he had an advert like that in the UK Michael might get  stitched up by 

• the Advertising Standards Regulator (Non Broadcast Code) and 
• the OFCOM (complaints about websites and apps) 

if anybody complained to them. That's because they who prefer people to say exactly what they mean - with no qualifications in the small print a long way in.

I get the impression that maybe things are done differently in the US? Or the regulations are not as tight as the UK's.

It really depends what you want to do. If you're serious about plein air painting, I'd recommend it. He writes informative posts (but the books are cheaper!)

NOTE: Michael also appears to have worked out the way to keep his Blogger blog going while having transferred all new content to his Substack Painting to See. So I'll be having a think about that.

Exploring Time - Tony Foster's watercolour landscapes at the RWS Gallery

There’s an amazing exhibition of very impressive watercolour paintings by Tony Foster at the RWS Gallery in Whitcomb Street. 

It's quite unlike anything else I've ever seen before in an art gallery.

For more than 45 years now English artist Tony Foster has worked in the World’s wildernesses - mountains and canyons, rainforests and deserts, the Arctic and the Tropics. Travelling slowly - on foot or by canoe or raft, and carrying his painting and camping equipment he makes his paintings in response to what he finds on his journeys.

“Exploring Time” in plein air painting treks through geological and biological time across various wilderness locations on different continents. 

This new exhibition presents over fifty watercolours painted en plein air over seventeen years, sharing the artist's reflections on the complexity of time and its impact upon the planet. Each includes notes from the artist’s experiences as well as maps and objects relevant to its location.

Divided into Geological Time, Biological Time, Human Time and Fleeting Moments, the paintings explore how time has sculpted and affected our planet. From Colorado to Tibet, the Galapagos and Cornwall, the works celebrate the wonder of nature, highlighting the importance of leaving areas of the world undisturbed.

A view of one of the basement galleries

His watercolour paintings painted plein air over 17 years are phenomenal. 

Some are of some absolutely amazing vistas in wilderness country. Some are of things he finds and records en route when trekking - which also record the small things in places in a unique way.

• You can see some of my photos of this paintings in my Facebook Post
• You can see a record of his exhibitions over the years on his website

The resulting paintings are a visual record of what he encounters on his journey: not just the landscape, but flora and fauna, notes, souvenirs and anecdotes.

A record of small objects - leaves, fruits, birds, eggs, feathers, twigs etc
found in a specific place on is travels

He also has an extraordinarily impressive CV of exhibitions across the USA and UK and coverage in articles by very many different publications. 

This exhibition will be embarking on a tour of the US from 2026 to 2028.

Approach to Drawing and Painting + Equipment

His approach to recording by drawing and painting what he sees is quite unlike virtually all landscape artists. This is his plein air method

He does not use photography or sketches but makes his paintings on site, often in the most difficult and uncomfortable circumstances. Sometimes a large-scale work (up to 8ft x 4 ft / 244 cms x 122 cms!) will take more than three weeks on site before it is sufficiently resolved to roll into its aluminium tube to be completed in his studio in Cornwall. 

Check out his painting equipment he takes with him 

Tony Foster's very lightweight painting equipment for very large paintings

Once he has found his painting site, he erects a makeshift board as an easel. When working in freezing conditions, he adds gin to his painting water to stop it icing-up. 

Events Programme

Unseen Turner and Bonington watercolours now on display

Turner and Bonington: Watercolours from the Wallace Collection is a new display of previously unseen watercolours by two of the most significant  watercolour painters of the 19th century - Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) and Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828).  It opened yesterday and is on for the next six months - until 21 April 2024 - in what's known as 'The Housekeeper's Room' on the ground floor just beyond the shop.

Turner and Bonington are two of the finest watercolour painters that England has ever produced. Plus these 19th century watercolours are normally kept in storage as they are very sensitive to light - and they have never been exhibited before at the Wallace Collection or elsewhere.

Richard Parkes Bonington
Venice_ The Doge’s Palace from the Ponte della Paglia, c. 1827-28
© The Trustees of the Wallace Collection

There are only 9 small previously unseen. watercolour paintings and 1 medium sized oil painting however they are definitely worth a trip to see them. The paintings are arranged in themes:

• Turner and Yorkshire (4 paintings)
• Bonington and Normandy (3 Paintings)
• Bonington's Views of Venice (3 paintings)

“The theme of the display is travel; in the sense of finding captivating views whether within the confines of one’s own country or through exploring other countries. The Normandy coves depicted by Bonington were notorious at the time for smuggling, which would have piqued the curiosity of the contemporary viewer, while Venice was, of course, the centre of the Grand Tour and attracted artists and aristocratic tourists in great numbers.”
Dr Lucy Davis, Curator at the Wallace Collection

Another theme relates to how each artist dealt with painting light and atmosphere. 

Turner and Yorkshire

Four watercolours about Yorkshire by JMW Turner

Turner spent a long career based in Britain but also travelled extensively around the UK and across Europe.

This first series is of Yorkshire and are four views painted for Sir William Pilkington (1775-1850) who was a contemporary of Turner and a close family friend. He was based at Chevet Hall near Wakefield.

The four watercolours followed his normal process of being 

• based on "on the spot" plein air sketches - in the sketchbooks which now form part of the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain.
• subsequently worked up into finished watercolour paintings either in his studio or in Yorkshire.

They comprise (left to right):

M. Stephen Doherty has died

I'm always brought up short when a name which has been very familiar to me for the last two decades of the online art world suddenly comes up on Facebook for all the wrong reasons.

Steve Doherty (known formally as M. Stephen Doherty) died of a heart attack on Saturday 12th November 2022.

Steve was one of those people who straddled the old and new world of communicating to ordinary people about art. He worked in the art magazine industry for 39 years

• He was Editor-in-Chief of American Artist, Watercolor, Drawing, and Workshop magazines between 1979 and 2010 - which used to be part of the Watson-Guptill art operation which I always highly rated (I used to be a subscriber to American Artist and Drawing)
• From 2011-2018, he was the Editor-in-Chief of PleinAir magazine (Streamline Publishing, Austin, TX) - and I followed its activities through newsletters and social media

However, having been through the demise of one publishing set-up (when its competitors bought it out, snaffled the subscribers and then closed it down) I'm guessing he also understood the importance of communication with target interest groups via social media. He certainly maintained a Facebook Page which he used to communicate with other plein air enthusiasts and display his plein air work.

He lived in Waynesboro, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and was married. The following is from his website 'about' page.

M. Stephen Doherty majored in art at Knox College in Galesburg, IL and graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY; taught art in public schools, a community college, and at Knox; worked in the marketing department of a company that manufactured screen printing art supplies; and then moved to a suburb of New York City. For 31 years, he was the editor of American Artist magazine and launched three other art magazines: Watercolor, Drawing, and Workshop. In 2011, he became Editor-in-Chief of PleinAir magazine and moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He continues to edit PleinAir, participate in plein air events, judge art shows, teach workshops, exhibit paintings, and give lectures. He writes a blog http://pleinairstories.wordpress.com. ny that manufactured screen printing art supplies; and then moved to a suburb of New York City.

This was the video that was made about him to honour his career when he retired in 2018.

He wrote extensively on plein air painting. 

• Here's some of the articles he wrote for Outdoor Painter
• Here's his blog which he wrote during 2015-16 Outdoor Painting Adventures
• as well as a book about Plein Air Painting - The Art of Plein Air Painting. An Essential Guide to Materials, Concepts, and Techniques for Painting Outdoors (2017, Monacelli Studio, New York,NY)

He also wrote two other three books

• The Watson-Guptill Handbooks of Landscape Painting (1989, Watson-Guptill Publications, Inc)
• Dynamic Still Lifes in Watercolor, the Art of Sondra Freckelton (1983, Watson-Guptill, Inc)

REFERENCE:

• Website: http://stevedohertyart.com/
• Blog: https://pleinairstories.wordpress.com/
• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/PleinAirSteve

Melissa Scott Miller paints from Tower Bridge Walkway

Melissa Scott Miller has been painting from the Walkway at the top of Tower Bridge. This summer she's been its official Artist in Residence

Melissa is a portrait and urban landscape artist who has been commissioned by the Trust which runs Tower Bridge (which is owned by the City of London) to create a panoramic painting of the views from the West Walkway at the top of Tower Bridge - from City Hall and the Shard on the South Bank, across the Thames, to the views of the various buildings old and new in the City of London on the North Bank of the Thames

You can find out more about #ABridgewithaView and Melissa on this page

To immortalise the very same views in 2022, we have commissioned English artist Melissa Scott-Miller to paint what she sees from the West Walkway. A Bridge with A View is a celebration of London and an ode to this vibrant city. The project takes place throughout the summer, and will include public workshops and family activities. Visitors to the attraction will be able to observe Melissa painting during their visit and see how the artwork progresses.

The intention is that the painting will be 150cm x 100cm - or maybe a triptych - and that the City of London will sell the painting at a charity auction later this year.

This is a video of Melissa painting her second painting in response to the views of Tower Bridge’s West Walkway - which covers the Upper Decks of HMS belfast to the Dome of St Paul's Cathedral.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tower Bridge (@towerbridge)

Review: Celebrity Landscape Artist of the Year 2021

Series 7 of Landscape Artist of the Year started last week with a special episode - Celebrity Landscape Artist of the Year "does Climate Change". Actually it was the first ever Celebrity Episode they'd had - and it saw a renewal of competitive paintbrushes for Jim Moir and Tomasz Schafernaker who have both previously appeared in Celebrity Portrait Artist of the Year.

So a bit of a fun programme - except for Jim and Tomasz - with the stakes raised when the contestants were told that they weren't just painting what they could see but rather they were painting on a theme of Climate Change.

Artists lined up with pods behind at the harbour at Whitstable

Artists

The celebrities / amateur artists participating in this episode were

• Jim Moir - a comedian, actor, musician and artist known best for his TV work under the name Vic Reeves. He's a previous winner of the Celebrity Portrait Artist of the Year episode in 2018. He's also a resident of Kent. (This is about Vic Reeeves the artist on his website
• Tomasz Shafernacker - a meteorologist for BBC Weather. I've yelled "get your hair cut" at him many times in recent months.  He owns a very arty apron which has a layer of paint spatters - so very obviously a keen amateur painter. (This is his art website)
• Caryn Franklin - a British Fashion journalist and Educator who has a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design from Kingston and did a postgrad year at Central St Martins and can obviously draw plus a MSc in Applied Psychology in Fashion at London College of Fashion. She was sewing for this episode - and brought her sewing machine bought with her 18th birthday money with her to the seaside.
• Jessie Cave - an English actress, comedian and cartoonist, known for her role as Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter film series. Her cartoons are observational and somewhat child-like.
• Rose Matafeo - a New Zealand comedian, actress, and TV presenter. - who has produced dioramas in the past - and produced another one for the programme.
• Jordan Stephens - half of the English hip hop duo Rizzle_Kicks - who was perhaps the least experienced of the six artists.

Interestingly all the artists normally work in their studios - so the experience of being outside and the changing weather was a new experience for all of them. I think some might be trying it again...

The artists with their artwork after the four hours were up

Location: Whitstable

A grey day in Whitstable

The location for this episode was Whitstable - a small seaside town on the North East Kent Coast. The only time I've visited Whitstable it was exactly the same as the weather in the episode - cloudy grey skies and rather windy. 

The town is famous for its Oysters which have been grown just offshore since Roman times.

The pods were all lined up along the West Quay of Whitstable Harbour, next to a boat park. It was obvious the filming became a little bit of a local attraction over the course of the day with a few people stopping to take a look at what was going on. 

Artists in pods on a wet day in Whitstable

Ifv you fancy visiting and having a go for yourself, the location was on the concrete strip on the rectangular bit jutting out of Whitstable Harbour (i.e. the East Quay - just past the Harbour Car Park and RNLI Station)

A bird's eye view of Whitstable Harbour

Artwork done before the show

VIDEO: Visit David Curtis in his studio.

Visit the renowned painter David Curtis in his studio / man cave / comfort zone!

Courtesy of a video of David Curtis  set-up and shot presumably by a relative - who chose to do it in portrait format - in his studio in the village of Misson in the north of Nottinghamshire and just east of Doncaster where he was born. This was done as an added extra to the annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 2020. 

His compact studio is not very big and is based in an old barn which dates back to 1660 and used to be the village slaughterhouse  - and then the coffin-maker's shop!!

David paints in both oil and watercolour and likes to work plein air as well as in his studio. He David highlights in the video how he likes to have:

• a specifc place in his studio for his watercolour painting where he still uses his 1960s drawing board
• his corner for oils - including his palette (He lists all the paints he uses)
  

David Curtis's oil palette in his studio

• the artwork around the studio
  
• his writing section; and 
• his computer section and bookcase
• AND what he gets out of working in his studio
  

He's not averse to showing you the view and the painting alongside it on his website, Facebook Page and Instagram account. You can see pics of him at work on his website 

Some of the pics on his website
- but the main pics are on the Gallery Pages

I've seen and admired his paintings hung in very many exhibitions over the years at the Mall Galleries - and I really appreciate this opportunity to see inside his studio. In effect, it's a story of his life as an artist.  Maybe somebody else needs to come and paint David in his studio - rather in the way a number have sketched and painted him at work when painting plein air?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Royal Society Marine Artists (@royalsocietymarine)

 

More about David Curtis

David Curtis VPROI, RSMA is a  

• Council member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and 
• Vice-President of the Royal Society of Marine Artists
• and has an outstanding list of achievements, exhibitions, collections etc on his website.
  

He has also written four highly regarded books about painting and been involved in a number of art instruction videos.  He's a very knowledgeable and thoughtful artist and instructor as well as an excellent artist whose paintings are much loved by very many people.

• website: https://www.djcurtis.co.uk/
• Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/davidcurtisartist 
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/davidcurtisartist/
  

Haidee-Jo Summers wins first prize in the Oil Painters of America Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

This year the Oil Painters of America's Wet Paint Competition & Convention went:

• International - with all registered attendees* able to compete for a minimum of $20,000 in cash and merchandise awards. 
• OPA members vied for awards in both the studio and plein air categories. 
• International artists living outside North America competed in a separate international category.
• Virtual - with all the awards announced online

Oil Painters of America - Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

These were 

• the Wet Paint Rules for the competition which took place on 11-12th September.
• the Schedule for the Wet Paint Competition and Convention

There were three divisions for entries as follows

• Plein Air Division: open to OPA Members only. (i.e. open air) 
• Paintings are executed outdoors as opposed to using photographs or models in a studio. 
• Both painter and subject matter must be outdoors, and photographs may not be used. 
• Studio Division: open to OPA Members only. 
• Paintings are executed indoors. 
• Both painter and subject matter must be indoors
• photographs may not be used. 
• Open Division: open only to non-OPA members and International artists
• includes both plein air and studio paintings.

Awards were announced at an online awards presentation on Thursday, September 17 at 6:30 p.m. US Central Time. 

You can view all the entries - by division in turn.

Award Winners of the Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

You can read the names of the award winners on this page - scroll down to Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

Winner of 
The crab hut at Wells-next-the-Sea by Haidee-Jo Summers
oil, 16” x 20”

Which is how Haidee-Jo Summers ROI RSMA came to win the First Prize in the Oil Painters of America wet paint competition, in BOTH

• the international competition
• the open division. 

Such an amazing surprise to have won first prize in the Oil Painters of America wet paint competition, in the international and open division. Huge thanks to John Pototschnik and Oil Painters of America and Rosemary & Co Artists Brushes for sponsoring me to enter!
Haidee-Jo Summers (Facebook Page)

The prize is valued at $4,460 (Funded by International Artist Magazine) - being one full-page advertisement and $1,000 cash funded by OPA 

Registration for non OPA members and International Entrants was $125 Non-OPA Members & International Participants and Haidee-Jo was sponsored by Rosemary & Co Artists Brushes.

You can follow Haidee-Jo on her Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/Haidee-Jo-Summers-ROI-RSMA-242006599187380/

More to come post Covid?

I think opening up competitions to an international body of painters is a brilliant idea - and I applaud the OPA for having the gumption to have a go t holding both a Virtual Competition and Convention - and opening it up to international artists.

It makes me wonder whether the 'normal' way of holding annual events and exhibitions is going to see a bit staid after all the novelty associated with trying to make things happen in a friendly but socially distant way.

For what it's worth I'd like to see more art societies doing this - on a regular basis!

P.S I'm already signed up to a Virtual 26th Annual Meeting and Conference via Zoom of the American Society of Botanical Artists which is taking place next month. All the benefit of the events and none of the flights or hotel bills!! :)

PPS Apologies for those expecting my review of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition - but the big supermarket shop this morning was rather tiring - and this is NOT a short blog post!

The world record mass paintout in Cornwall

Last Sunday over 1,000 plein air painters turned up to form an almost continuous line of painters on the Cornish coastline between Land's End and Sennen.

It looks like it was an AMAZING event!

The Line of Plein Air Painters from Land's End to Sennen in Cornwall

Courtesy of Anthony Garratt

It was the first ever mass plein air painting event in the UK organised by the Art For Good initiative pioneered by Anthony Garratt with Newlyn School of Art.

The Art for Good initiative is a new series of mass painting installations for environmental causes

Hence the painters were also aiming to raise money to preserve National Trust footpath between Land’s End and Sennen in Cornwall from erosion (due to the number of visitors to the area).

All participants will stand an equal distance apart and the reverse of their painting panels will be painted pink so that from an aerial perspective, they form a continuous dotted line when held above the participants heads; the denotation of a footpath on an OS Map

They certainly succeeded in raising the profile of both the path and the event as it got covered by the BBC News on Sunday where there was some splendid video of all the painters.

This footage is hard to believe - do watch - my jaw DROPPED (and I'd already seen some footage of the event on the BBC News)



I've taken the liberty of scouring Facebook for photos which could be embedded of the event, the artists and the paintings they produced and have included links to every Facebook account or Page beneath the image.

Some of the artists and their paintings

Now for pics of some of the artists - and their paintings!  They look great!

Paint Offs, Paint Outs and Quick Draws - in September 2019

A couple of events for those who like their plein air painting are coming up next month - in Bristol and on the Broads.
This is in addition to the normal plein air paint out days organised by the British Plein Air Painters during the summer

Inaugural Bristol Plein Air Paint Off

Central Bristol has a rich landscape ranging from the soft slopes of Brandon Park, the historical, industrial cranes and harbour, the modern architecture of Millenium Square and the traditional architecture of the cathedral and university, not to mention the iconic suspension bridge - a feast for "Plein Air" painters whatever their medium or practice may be.

Cass Arts Bristol @ 43-45 Park Street, Bristol - organiser, assembly point and exhibition holder

EVENT: Bristol Plein Air Paint Off

• Registration / Exhibition Space: Cass Art Bristol, 43 - 45 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5NL
• Dates: Sunday 8th September 
• Hours: 9.30am - 5pm
• Organised by: Cass Arts and Jen Gash (Sky Landscape Artist of the Year 2018)
• Event Link: Bristol Plein Air Paint off

Jen Gash painting plein air this time last year - in the semi-finals

Who can take part

• 50 places available (there are 35 left on the Eventbrite website as at the time of writing)
• Minimum age for entering is 16 years. 
• £10 entrance fee per person
•  and it would be helpful for you to have a mobile phone so we can find you and visit you during the day!

What you have to do

• bring your own supply of art materials, tools etc and lunch/drinks etc (Cass Art will be providing a discount for materials on the day, should you need further supplies!)
• 9.30am  assemble at Cass Art Bristol, 43 - 45 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5NL
• to register for a 10.30 start (i.e. time needed for paperwork etc.)
• You will be given a unique entrant number
• stickers will be applied to your intended supports
• you'll also be given a waiver and a permission form for photos etc
• provide your mobile phone number so that you can be located during the day
• 10.30am start painting (maximum canvas size of 100cm square)
• 3.30pm - finish painting. This gives you 5 hours painting time, in total. 
• thereafter - gather at Cass Art for preliminary judging and shortlisting.
• 3.30 and 5pm - paintings by 20 artists completed on stickered supports will be shortlisted for an exhibition during the following week
• 5pm - collect your paintings if not shortlisted

PLEASE NOTE: Jen Gash and Cass Art are not responsible for participants safety and wellbeing. Please make sure you have sun screen, umbrellas, food etc and are able to take care of your own needs.

Prizes:

There will be prizes for the following categories:

• Young Talent Award - 16 - 21 years, to be awarded at 5pm on the day
• Cass Art Plein Air Award - overall winner to be awarded at 5pm on the day
• Peoples Choice Award - to be decided following a public exhibition where members of the public can vote for their favourite piece.

Prizes and judges to be announced... but there will be some lovely things !

A Brush with the Broads

A fourth annual weekend of painting activity on the Norfolk Broads which seems to invade my Facebook feed once a year!

The Broads is a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.
The lakes, known as broads, were formed by the flooding of peat workings

It's back after a break of two years having run in 2014, 2015, and 2016

A Brush with the Broads™ started as the dream of local artist, Linda H Matthews, to bring artists and collectors together in an area steeped in artistic inspiration and history, the Norfolk & Suffolk Broads.
For artists to inspire, socialise, learn from and compete with each other.

EVENT: A Brush with the Broads

• Registration / Exhibition Space: change of location, to Hall Farm Cottages - a complex of self catering cottages in converted farm buildings.
• Dates: Thu, 26 Sep 2019, 14:00 – Mon, 30 Sep 2019, 22:00 BST
• Organised by: Linda H Matthews
• Event Link (for Booking tickets): A Brush with the Broads™ 2019
• Registration: Online and at Hall Farm Cottages

The snowy painting challenge - the results

Last Saturday, I asked to see the paintings people had been doing during the recent cold spell and snow.

I'm thinking of doing a blog post about RECENT snow paintings.
If you've been braving the temperature and painting snow scenes - or even staying inside and painting the snow outside

• EITHER - leave a comment with the url of where I can find the pic
• OR - send me a pic of your snow painting - preferably with a pic of you painting it!

The ones I'm posting below are those done recently and from observation. I'm afraid I eliminated most of those that appeared to not have been done in the last few weeks.

If you enjoyed the challenge - either in terms of sending/nominating paintings - or just reading the results please let me know on my Facebook page (sorry - comments are still suspended on this blog due to the idiots who post spam)

This is the painting - and entry - which impressed me the post. It's a lovely painting of 'snow on allotments' by Valérie Pirlot (website: https://www.valeriepirlot.com/englandmainlyinbath Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valeriepirlotart

A better picture of the painting I did at the week-end in the snow. I've painted that view dozen of times, but it looks so different covered in white. So much fun to paint! Now available on my website:https://www.valeriepirlot.com/englandmainlyinbath

Even better - we got the artists's eye view too. So you can see what she was painting.



Best of the lot is we get what it takes to go out painting plein air in wintry weather. Love the comment to go with it!  Truly a British Plein Air Painter of snowy weather!



This is one of the later ones to come in. I like to think I maybe inspired Martin Truefitt-Baker to have a go!

You can see from his post Snowy day tree that this is a favourite tree that he has painted a number of times. Like Valerie it's a view he's painted many times. Maybe this is a tip for snowy paintings - much better to paint a view you know under snow then spend time working out which is the best angle and how to paint structures. You don't want to hang about too long working out

More importantly this is his second oil painting after a break of 30 years. He's been using acrylics for a long time but has only just recently started painting in oils again.!

This is a painting I've just finished in the last couple of days. This is only the second oil painting, I've now completed, after returning to the medium after 30-ish years. 

Snowy day tree

Haidee-Jo Summers sent me some of her paintings done at the weekend. She's a very experienced plein air painter in the snow - and I love her snow paintings.

Hi Katherine, we haven’t had much snow here in Lincolnshire but on Saturday I managed to get out in it and paint these... no photos of me painting them though...

Bothy by Haidee-Jo Summers

The woodman’s bothy at Belton village, this site used to be the woodyard for the whole Brownlow estate.

One of the things I very much like about HaideeJo's paintings is that she always gets the light and tone just right.  You can feel the cold!

Logs by Haidee Jo Summers - providing you don't need a lot to make a snowy picture

These are a few of my favourite things... wood pile in the snow from last weekend 8” x 10”