A peek at the plein air process

By: 
Leslie Silverman
 
 
The 21 painters who came to this year’s Black Hills Plein Air Paint Out were a diverse group with a common interest in wanting to capture the beauty of the Black Hills.
 
Blake Luther of Driggs, Idaho, is a professional architect who began doing plein air paintings about 15 years ago.  Luther said he always loved to draw but plein air painting is a whole different beast. 
 
“There are so many balls to juggle,” he said of the art form. For one, “you’re at the mercy of the elements.”  
 
Luther’s first day in  the Hills was overcast, foggy, and brisk by September standards. But for plein air, it was nearly perfect. 
 
“Today wasn’t hard because the light was dull,” Luther said. With strong sunlight come intense shadows. 
 
When it’s overcast out “the colors are very saturated. There is no glare. There are no shadows,” Luther said. This makes the painting easier to create over time.
 
Luther  happened into the hobby of plein air, which he refers to as his “relief” from one of his clients, an artist who contracted with him to design her studio.  
 
Luther began taking painting workshops and  joked that once he found painting, his clients could no longer get ahold of him.  
 
For Luther, the hardest aspect of plein air is to imagine the painting versus the scene itself.  He may not choose the best scene, but it is one he can imagine painting. He likens finding the right setting to a photograph. 
 
“A photograph is just a model. Our job as a painter is to translate that into a certain scene,” he said.
 
Many artists are drawn to one place due to the light that they see and then go to that same place the next day with different lighting, and then no longer want to paint  there.
 
Charlene Brown  explains that process. She had scoped out three places to paint the following  day but wasn’t sure any of them would still capture her interest. 
 
“You see something at a certain time of the day and say ‘I’m coming back to this.’ But then when you return, you may see something completely different. The light makes the difference and light can be different the next day,” she said.
 
Brown did not return to any of the places she had looked at. Instead, she began her Friday morning driving down Old Hill City Road to a private home where she had permission to paint. The views of Black Elk Peak were stunning, yet Brown focused her attention on an old outbuilding. 
 
“I like old buildings,” she said, adding that the structure had nice light when she first saw it at 8.m. 
 
By now it was nearly 10 a.m., and things had changed. The whole valley was shadowed when she arrived and she was trying to paint what she saw at that exact moment, versus the  sun drenched scene now unfolding.  
 
With her satchel of bristle brushes and her oil paint she was trying to capture the composition, the light and dark patterns.
 
“That is the most important  thing,” Brown said. 
 
She had taken some photos when she first arrived, hoping that they may help as the light constantly changed. The day was challenging, with clouds and sun fighting for reign over the sky. Brown  was close, but felt the painting still needed to be “resolved.” She would step back from time to time, looking at the color temperatures; shadows are always cooler in the morning. 
 
Brown  does not consider herself a “fast painter”, however art is in her bloodline. Her grandmother taught her art as a young child. She began oil painting at about 14. Now Brown  herself is a teacher, with students who range in age between 12 and 72.
 
All of her own children can draw and her husband too has done several forms of art including photography and calligraphy.
 
He notes, “she is happiest when she is painting,” which may be why he supported her trek across the midwest from Indiana to take part in the Hill City show. 
 
This was not Brown’s first Plein Air Paint Out. She has done several in Indiana. 
 
It was, however,  her first time entering this show in Hill City. “
 
“I feel welcomed here,” she said. “I had a really good time.”
 
This year’s plein air event had an entry waiting list. Painters learned about the event via various channels including local galleries, plein air magazines and word of mouth from organizers 

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