Telluride Plein Air: what’s all the fuss about
Plein Air artists in Telluride (see Slide show of their work below)
This week, 30 nationally recognized artists have been painting in and around Telluride for the Sheridan Arts Foundation's 6th annual Telluride Plein Air event.
Bottom line: Impressionist style plein air painting is an old idea updated by new blood.
Eugene Boudin was one of the more adventurous 19th-century painters, known primary for his beach scenes and seascapes of northern France, and luminous skies. When Boudin taught his young student, Claude Monet, the importance of painting a scene directly from nature in the light, in the air, just as it was, painting en plein air was born. In the stroke of Monet’s agitated brush, the dark palette of Realism (and the Barbizon School) gave way to the brighter highlights of painting directly from nature.