California Art Club - En Plein Air Painting Events

En Plein Air Painting Events

En plein air painting, the practice of painting outdoors, directly from nature has always had a social aspect to it. In the late 18th century and early in the 19th century, after the conclusion of their academic studies, many European painters went south to Rome to paint Roman ruins and the Campagna. Then, in the first half of the 19th century the French Barbizon school began to gather in the Fountainbleu forest to paint, lodging in the tiny village of Barbizon. Painters traveled there together, sketched on the forests and plains of the region and socialized together in the little inns in the evenings. As the years passed, a number of painters moved there and Barbizon became the first of many art colonies where en plein air oriented artists lived and painted.

As the en plein air movement was revived, large, well organized festivals were organized where artists worked out of doors for a few days and then exhibited and sold their work. The first such event organized by the California Art Club was held at Mission San Juan Capistrano in the summer of 1995, sponsored by the art patron Joan Irvine Smith. This was a large event, with 83 artists participating. The mission events were very popular with members of the California Art Club as well as collectors and nine of these large scale events were held at the mission before sponsorship and interest declined. Smaller, more casual "Paint-Outs" are also a fixture on the California Art Club calendar, where artists paint in scenic locations or paint models in outdoor settings.