Plein Air Survey Results!!!!

As you may already know the Wisconsin Plein Air Painters Association in response to the upcoming Umbrella Group meeting issued a survey to determine the consensus of our group on various subjects...sure to come up...at the convention!  As I am unable to attend this meeting myself (as founder of WIPAPA) we have a representative going to this meeting. I did not feel comfortable sending them without finding out how our people felt so we decided to do a survey. As we (a group of us) developed the survey two things became clear: 1. It was an opportunity to ask a wide variety of questions and 2...the questions would apply to most of the artists in the world of Plein Air. We therefore decided to make it available to all so as to get the broadest sample.

As the starting point of the survey was the conversation begun in the original article written by Eric Rhoads (The Courage to Make Waves…Oct. Nov. 2012) concerning standards for plein air events and how to apply them.  I alerted Mr. Rhoads to the survey.  In his response he took issue with the statement “creation of a sanctioning body to rate Plein Air events” and assured me in no uncertain terms that was NOT his intent but rather suggested guidelines! ”This line creates a survey bias and does not represent our intent and I think it does a disservice to the survey result and sends the wrong message about our intent.” He said. At this time I have no reason to doubt him. For this I apologize. It was not our intent to misrepresent you!

It is only fair to state that creating this survey became a bit contentious. Questions were changed, added, deleted. Wording was squabbled over. Intent was questioned and feelings bled. In the end we were divided about even releasing it. Consensus is not easy to come by among artists. In the end I decided to push forward in hopes of gaining more understanding from all who took the survey.

In hindsight, it is easy to see we could have created a better survey. For instance it is clear that invitational events have differing goals and standards than open events. Given more time we could have asked a set of questions for each eventuality and perhaps had clearer responses.

One continually amazing thing to me…when asked what made a successful event …”camaraderie with fellow artists” received the highest number of votes just ahead of sales! This to me shows the very soul of my fellow artists…oh they are a goodly bunch!!

Results can be found here:

Summary: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/WIPAPA/2013_Plein_Air_Survey_Results/2013_Plein_Air_Survey_Results.pdf

Full Survey: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/WIPAPA/2013_Plein_Air_Survey_Results/2013_Plein_Air_Survey_Data.pdf

 Full Data in spreadsheet format: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/WIPAPA/2013_Plein_Air_Survey_Results/CSV/   and http://www.sageartsstudio.com/WIPAPA/2013_Plein_Air_Survey_Results/Excel/

Wendie Thompson (Current WIPAPA administrator and all around art instigator!)

Important Survey! Regarding Your voice at the Plein Air Convention!

This survey has ended it's comment period...stay tuned for results! Thank you all who offered your input!!!

Greetings all!!

Recently in the October-November issue of Plein Air Magazine, Editor Eric Rhoads suggested that the Plein Air community would benefit from the creation of a sanctioning body to rate Plein Air events.

In this article he suggested standards for running these events, in order to maintain the quality of work and sustain the interests of collectors. There will be a meeting to discuss this idea and the issues raised at the next Plein Air Convention being held in a couple of weeks.

In order to give the Plein Air community a voice at that meeting, some of my fellow WIPAPA members and I have created a survey that deals with these issues.

The survey is only 22 questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete. If this interests you, I urge you to take the survey and offer your opinions to the discussion. 

I've listed the original article here:

http://imgsrv.pleinairconvention.com/image/pace/UserFiles/File/PDF/PAMOctNov12PubLetter.pdf

 After reading that, please take the survey:

Click here to take survey

Impressions of Red Rock Plein Air Convention by Christine Contardi

Thank you Christine for sharing!!! Photos and verbiage belong to Christine Contardi!


Wendie , I thought I would write you about some of my impressions from The Plein Air Convention in Las Vegas. 

First of all, I would highly recommend to all my fellow artists, the experience of being with a group of painters with a passion for painting outdoors. It was wonderful.  It is worth the price of admission for that alone.  We started out the convention with lectures and demonstrations the first two days. We then painted at the old Howard Hughes ranch the next day. The last day of the convention we painted at Bonnie Springs. 


 Next year in April, they will have another convention in Carmel, CA.  I encourage my WIPAPA buddies to seriously consider going to this next one.  The  first day started with a lecture from Richard Robinson.  He is a painter from New Zealand. I have seen some of his videos, excerpts of which you can see on you tube.  I lived briefly in New Zealand and am familiar with some of the areas that Richard has painted.  The landscapes of Aotearoa (NZ)  are breathtaking.   Richard talked about the concept of Notan.  An Asian concept of the play of light and dark shapes in relation to each other to form a pleasing pattern. Design is the most important part of the painting. Jeremy Lipking, Tony Pro, and Alexey Steele did a demonstration of portrait painting using one model.  Tony said that every painting  you paint is a self-portrait   no matter what the subject matter It is about your state of mind and understanding of your subject at that moment.  

Tony Pro

Clyde Aspvig  spoke about having taste and restraint in your paintings. Don't be satisfied by the obvious view.  Lose the unnecessary and simplify  that what nature gives us. Contemplate nature in the microcosm such as moss on a rock and translate that into a landscape painting by using the patterns and textures of the moss into your treatment of a tree or field.  Fractal patterns of a bird's wings can be writ large when painting rocks , for example.  


 Next we were treated to a lecture by the grandson of John Singer Sargeant.  Sargeant carefully composed his paintings and nothing was left to chance.  He did what needed to be done to serve the composition. Ulrich Gleiter and Kim Lordier then demonstrated from paintings they had done out in the field. Ulrich paints boldly with impasto strokes and strong chroma. Kim worked in pastel and tries for a strong focal point by softening edges and giving the viewer less information around the last few inches of the canvas.  


Ken Auster did a demo on a huge canvas of a trolley car in San Francisco.  The best advice he gave and I took with me was that we see things for  what they are because of what is behind them. The strength of the focal point will determine how much detail you will need to support the focal point. Matt Smith talked about how there is no such thing as a plein air style.  Reflected light is everywhere. Painting bounced light in the shadows will help infuse light into the painting. He puts his skies in last so they aren't too rich or too dark. If you can keep your values to 3 or 4 it makes for a more pleasing picture. 


 Scott Christensen talked about being vulnerable and taking chances. He believes , like Carlson, that overstatement is a weakness.   Camille Przewodek and Ned Mueller demoed together. Camille's bold use of color starts at the very first brushstroke. Her philosophy is ," it is easier to tame a stallion then bring a dead horse back to life."  Ned begins by doing value studies and concentrates on shapes , not the things of which  he is painting. Don't think about the water, trees and rocks you are painting but the abstract design of their forms.  Ken Backhaus'  lecture  was on the decisions an artist must make for a successful painting. He used other artists work to bring home the points of design, asymmetry, color harmony, atmosphere, pattern, brushwork, subtlety of values, and formatting of the painting itself.   

Alexey Steele

All in all the Plein Air convention in Vegas was an amazing experience.  I will never forget Alexey Steele bravely facing a wet and wild day while yelling, " Vegas , baby!"  or Alexey spontaneously doing a portrait of the Sennelier's representative.  We also watched an incredible video of plein air painting in the Arctic circle which is available for purchase if any of you are interested.  Facing the cold and the mosquitos of Wisconsin plein air painting is nothing compared to what Cory had to go through !!  So much more happened but I hope this little synopsis can offer a little glimpse of what this  experience meant to me.  Sincerely ,   Christine Contardi

Discount offer...Plein Air Convention and Expo Las Vegas April 12-15 2012

MEMBERS: Please Read below. Member discount attached! 

Dear Members: Next spring, PleinAir magazine is holding what may well be the largest gathering of artists in history. The publishers expect as many as 750 artists to gather for the first PleinAir Convention & Expo, set for April 12-15, 2012, at the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa and Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Las Vegas. They have offered our members a special code for a $100 discount on registration. The magazine says the conference is selling fast, and once they hit their 750-person limit, they cannot add more people. So if you’d like to go, they’re recommending you sign up early. They also believe the hotel will sell out fast. To use the code, simply go to www.pleinairconvention.com, click on the register button and fill out your information. You’ll be asked if you have a special code. Insert the following code:             Code: WIPAPA You can learn more about the conference at Pleinairconvention.com. We’re pretty excited about this event and all the top artists attending. Remember to register early to be assured a seat. Sincerely, Wendie Thompson