by John Otrompke

Scott Tallman Powers worked on a painting in Humboldt Park, Chicago.

Being an outdoor landscape painter in the Midwest certainly has its challenges. There are the rapidly changing light and cloud patterns, the vagaries of the weather, and other unexpected natural occurrences. When that Midwestern setting is a bustling city such as Chicago, a painter can expect a whole host of disruptions and challenges. But those obstacles haven’t stopped the members of Plein Air Painters of Chicago (PAPC) from finding and sharing the beauty of their city, whether it’s through their weekly landscape-painting outings or exhibitions of their work at local museums and art centers. The group, which was founded by landscape painter Scott Tallman Powers and is now run by the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, is just one of many plein air painting groups across the country learning how to adapt to, and best capture, their local climate and culture.

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One of the most challenging aspects of plein air painting—regardless of which area of the country you’re in—is dealing with the quickly changing light. “We had a nice silvery light with a thin layer of clouds today,” says Powers, referring to one of PAPC’s recent landscape-painting outings at Humboldt Park, on the northwest side of Chicago. “But although the even light is beautiful, it also poses some difficulties. Because your values are often close together on a day like this, it is much more difficult to convey the direction of light. When the light is even, you have to take a more sensitive approach to temperature rather than concentrate on strong shifts in value.”

Humboldt Park Lilies by Pablo De Leon, 2007, oil, 8 x 10.

In addition to being able to react to fast-moving light, plein air painters must be quick decision makers. “As the sun moves in and out, you have to decide which type of light you want,” explains Powers. “For instance, if you want a softer effect and sunlight hitting your scene, are you going to keep waiting for the sun to break through the clouds before you make your value judgments? Or will you wait until the sun goes behind the clouds to make those comparisons?” Those decisions are hard enough to make standing in the peace and quiet of the country, never mind in the middle of the chaos and commotion of a city.

“Painting in a public urban setting requires both being aware of your surroundings and being considerate of others,” says Powers. “You need to set up your equipment in a place where your easel won’t be knocked into or tripped over by passersby and try to stay out of people’s way. Also, in a big city like Chicago, you have to strap everything together so nothing gets taken. There are also safety concerns—I’ve been in a situation where I was standing a little too close to the edge of the sidewalk and was nearly knocked in the head by a bus’s mirror as it went whizzing by.”

Ohio Street Bridge by Wesley James Drake, 2007, oil, 11 x 14.

Wes Drake stood among a field of flowers as he worked on his painting.

One PAPC member, Stuart Fullerton—an assistant U.S. attorney who now serves as the coordinator for the painting group—has experienced his share of shocking urban encounters, both in and out of the courtroom. He likes to incorporate into his paintings some of the more innocuous observations he makes. “Paintings of the park naturally appeal to local residents,” says Fullerton. “More so than in other areas of Chicago, people in the neighborhood of Humboldt Park are curious about what we’re doing. One evening this past summer while I was doing a quick painting, some kids came by, including one charming little girl who offered me a quarter to paint her a picture of the lagoon.”

Some members of PAPC use photography to assist them with their landscape painting, but most prefer to do all their observing directly. “The information you get from painting outdoors—such as the effects of color, light, and atmosphere—is simply not available when you look through a camera,” Fullerton says. “The camera does things that are alien to the visual experience of standing outside, such as flattening things out and distorting edges, especially if you’re using a camera with a smaller aperture: it has such a great depth of field that every edge is equally sharp, no matter how far away it is.

Ozinga by Christina Body, 2007, oil, 8 x 22.

Early Morning in Chicago by Denny Lubecke, 2007, oil, 11 x 14.

“Also, when we look at things, we experience peripheral vision, but the camera doesn’t,” Fuller continues. “And we also experience gazing. For example, there are certain things you can best see by not looking directly at them, such as the Pleiades constellation. If you look straight at it in the night sky, it fades away and you can’t see it, but if you look 10 to 15 degrees to the side, it becomes sharper. There are actually a number of optical tricks or illusions one can best experience by gazing at them.”

Of course one of the most unpredictable factors of plein air painting is the weather, and Powers says that the Plein Air Painters of Chicago have painted through a range of inclement conditions. “We’ve gone out in 20-degree days in the snow with a 10-below wind-chill factor, and we’ve also painted through rainstorms,” he says. “I tell artists painting in the rain that when the canvas is covered with oil, the water will not mix with it. If it’s a harder rain, it’s easier to see your canvas because the water will drop off quicker. But if it’s mistier, you’ll end up with little water droplets all over, so I usually lay a piece of Viva paper towel over the top of it and blow on the backside; the paper towel absorbs the drops, making it easier to see your canvas again.”

Pumpkin Patch by Errol Jacobson, 2007, oil, 8 x 10.

Barbara Herring used a palette knife to achieve texture in her painting.

Even with the many challenges the Plein Air Painters of Chicago face with quickly changing light, inclement weather, and various distractions, very little could stop them from painting the people and places of their beloved city. “There are certainly some difficulties and obstacles involved with painting outdoors in an urban environment,” says Powers, “but the only way you’re going to accurately capture the energy and passion of the city you’re painting is if you fully immerse yourself in it.”

John Otrompke is a freelance writer in Chicago.

View a gallery of work by members of Plein Air Painters of Chicago.

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Comments

Bravo, well done!

I enjoyed each posted painting!!

I can't wait to attend a showing!!!