1. Plein Air Drawing

2. definition Plein Air drawing or painting refers to the French phrase “en plein air” which mean “out in the open air.” It simply means doing observation drawings or paintings outside. The Impressionist painters of the late 1800’s loved the paint outdoors because the light would change and create different scenes.

3. Claude Monet, French 1840-1926

4. He painted many paintings of the same scene at different times of the day to get different lighting and colors. Haystacks were a favorite of his.

6. Richard Diebenkorn, American 1922-1993 Used shapes of color to help define landscapes often

8. Gwendolyn Waring A local Flagstaff artist that also uses the Plein Air style is Gwendolyn Waring. She uses paint and pastel to show local scenes. http://www.waringarts.com/home.html

9. The technique Find a good viewpoint. Use your viewfinder to help you. Try to fit a foreground, mid ground and background. Look for ways to draw the objects as shapes of color. Sketch with pencil first the blocked shapes in a contour drawing Add pastel or paint to the shapes as solid colors, not details yet. Add finer details at the end.

12. Grading Initial layout of scene using the viewfinder (how you compose the picture)…10 points Color blocking… 10 points Details.. 5 points Total 25 points

13. Additional info National Core Arts Standards: 1, 2, 3, 9, 11 SWBAT use correct tools and techniques to create a successful plein air drawing or painting. Vocab: plein air, foreground, mid-ground, background, contour drawing