Plein Air Reflection

I’ve been saying “Plein Air” a lot recently. Totally has nothing to do with my acceptance into the 2026 Port Republic Plein Air Invitational. Well… maybe a little.

Plein Air means “open air” in French. It is quite literally to paint outside from observation. I like being outside, and I like painting, so I went for it even though I had never given it a serious go before. On a free Saturday, I packed up my paints, my brushes, my canvas, my gesso, and headed off to my local State Park. Naturally, I forgot my palette, so I made do mixing paints directly onto the metal lining of my brand new easel. Live and learn!

Choosing the location was heavy for me. I used to work at that Park and I genuinely loved that job as much as you might love a family member. To date, choosing to walk away was the hardest and best decision I’ve made for myself (and genuinely, what a privilege it is to say that.)

I went back and forth with my husband on whether or not I should go back. If it would feel right. If anxiety would overcome me. If I was crazy for even thinking about it, knowing there was a chance I might run into someone connected to why I left. But also… how nice it would be to break in my new easel at a place that meant so much to me.

Whelp, call me crazy, because there I was Saturday morning.

I found a remote corner of the park that was beautiful (which wasn’t hard, it is a beautiful place after all). After a brief battle with setting up my easel, I popped in my earbuds, and… silence. Mentally. What a gift! Most of my worries dissipated like the morning dew and suddenly the biggest problem I had was deciding how to paint a sparse tree canopy.

The competition I am participating in is a “shotgun” style one, timed for four hours. So for three, I painted that little corner of the world. The morning was nicely overcast for the first two, then the sun came out to play and ruin my perception of light. It was so educational to paint from observation!

I am not going to lie to you and recommend it for every burgeoning artist. You have to make quick decisions, and its slow work. That’s the thing I liked most about it. Sometimes, you need to slow down and just look. There is no better way to build appreciation for the innate beauty all around us.

Personally, I found the experience so enjoyable that same week on a work night. There I created one of my favorite paintings of 2026 in just an hour. I could have gone longer if the mosquitoes hadn’t tried to eat me alive. I am already chomping at the bit to go somewhere else; I’m really hoping to get one more practice in before the contest! I’m just waiting on this dreary weather to go away and to find a few free hours.

It’s hard to make time for ourselves, isn’t it?

So once in a while making that time is all the more important. I am a big fan of doing the hard thing, head on. Sometimes, that hard thing is choosing between Scylla and Charybdis, and other times it’s mixing the perfect hue of yellow for an early autumn leaf.