HARBRON Plein air

I am pleased to reveal a new addition to the Harbron Plein Air range: a panel box for storing/carrying your miniature 5 x 7 inch panels.   5 great reasons why I take this box on location:  Small canvas boards, or miniatures, are great for warming-up. Rather than jump straight into my main piece, I might do a miniature just to get my mind and ideas focused and my hands loosened up. Sometimes my miniatures will be the main piece. I might complete a run of miniatures between rain showers or when I don't have a lot of time, or when I simply want to focus on a small study. Miniatures are great to do at the end of a painting session, to use up what paint I have left on the palette, whilst making the most of any time I have left.  Miniatures are super portable. I can reduce my kit to 2 paint brushes, a limited palette of 3-4 tubes of paint, small airtight palette, my medium and a rag. Off I go! At such a small size, I can get away without an easel - I'll just hold the board...

  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.  

Artists sketching in the White Mountains (1868) by Winslow Homer Oil on panel You might hear a number of pronunciations: 'plan-air', 'ple-ner' or 'playn-air', the latter being the most common anglicised form. However, if you want to be faithful to French authenticity, say 'ple-ner'