What is plein air?

 

The Artist Sketching (1922) by John Singer Sargent
Oil on canvas, plein air

The expression 'plein air' comes from the french phrase en plein air, meaning 'in the open air' and is popularly used to describe painting outdoors, or a painting that has been completed on location. 

"Everything that is painted directly and on the spot always has strength, a power, and a vivacity of touch one cannot recover in the studio... Three strokes of the brush in front of nature are worth more than two days of work at the easel"

- Eugène Boudin

Purists might only apply the term plein air to work that was completed entirely outdoors. Others might accept a final touch-up in the studio. Either way, it is desirable to maintain the fresh, immediate brush strokes that typically characterise a good plein air painting.  

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