Fifty-two paint-out sites are planned for this season’s plein air artists in the Annapolis Valley and HRM.
The one valued attribute of those artists who paint outdoors, on location (en plein air) is “extended geographic memory”. We watch, listen, smell, taste and touch our surroundings — for 2-3 hours. Geography becomes imprinted. As we gain artistic skills, we paint more than what we know. We paint more than what we see. We paint what we feel.
Eric Rhoads, publisher of Plein Air magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur magazine in the USA, states that the plein air movement is currently the fastest growing art movement in the world. There are tens of thousands of plein air artists in the world. So when they reacted positively to my interactive Google map that was a big deal for me. This is probably the first such map for plein air artists in the world, and so much more is possible.
Wow, that is very cool!
— Plein Air Magazine
I wrote back to Plein Air magazine, “Thanks. I did this on my own but with the right development team in place [thinking COGS’ student project] a plein air map could be scaled globally so artists could see when and where paint-outs are located, with contact and other information. This would go a long way to network the plein air community on their travels.“. They are now looking into this further.
Reactions from elsewhere have also been very positive.
POSTSCRIPT
Not many of our readers know we have a celebrated, world-class plein air artist living in Digby, Nova Scotia; just down the road.
Poppy Balser recently received yet another prestigious international award. This time it was for her watercolour “Light Washes Over Tidal Pools”, inspired by her many visits to Point Prim and area.
Oh, why not toot my own horn? A website I share with Anne is located at wedlerfineart.com
95% of our work is en plein air.
Ernest Blair Experiment 