Oil Painting

While the benefits are expansive, Plein Air Events take a tremendous amount of time, volunteers, and community support. This is just a brief list of things to consider in order to develop a successful, ongoing event. They are meant to be general guidelines to provide foresight into the endeavor. These are not set in stone and there are many creative ways to develop various aspects of the event.
To start, here are a few questions you should think about that will help you through the process of establishing an event:
 
 
Who is/should be involved?
Art Guild/ Organization, Public Art Committee, Chamber of Commerce, BID, Downtown Organization, City Manager, Private Business, Events Organization, Other. It can often be advantageous to combine more than one organization to support an event.
Why do you want to develop a Plein Air Event?
Fundraiser, Community Awareness, Promote the Arts, Tourism, Education, Other
What is your Mission Statement?
Your mission statement may be as simple as your ‘Why?’ statement, but becomes more expansive when more than one organization is involved.
Can you develop significant community interest
in the form of volunteers and art buyers?
This is the most significant question of all, and one to consider very seriously.
Next, determine the desired benefits and realistically review the requirements.
BENEFITS

• Once established (2-3 years) they can become a significant source of funds
• They can bring unique cross sections of a community together
• They create goodwill within the community
• They support and encourage tourism
• They support local businesses including hotels, restaurants, and retailers
• They can provide a source of education about local history, art, community
• They can raise awareness about local events, history, persons of interest
• They can be used to raise awareness about targeted issues
• They can provide State/National Recognition

REQUIREMENTS

Think of a Plein Air Event as a three-legged stool. Those legs consist of Artists, Buyers and Organizers. If any of the legs are missing, the stool falls over. They play off each other. Quality Artists encourage Buyers. A well-organized event attracts Artists and Buyers. Buyers support the Organizers’ mission and attract Artist.
Artists
Target: 25-50 Qualified Artists
Community Support
Buyers, Volunteers and Sponsorships (Absolutely Key to continued success)
Commitment
It may require 3-5 years to create a profitable, well established event. Plan for that.
Event Committee
4-6 members willing to meet frequently, optimally beginning one year prior to the event.
Volunteers
Minimum of 12 Volunteers plus one volunteer for every 4 artists greater than 30
Volunteers qualified to:

• Create the prospectus
• Advertise
• Create Marketing Material
• Promote the Event
• Distribute Materials
• Develop a Website, Facebook, Instagram & Blogs
• Solicit Volunteer
• Manage Volunteers
• Continually Communicate with Artists
• Find Venues
• Organize social gatherings
• Accounting
• Solicit Contributions
• Create Artist Information Packets
• Create and Maintain Events Calendar
• Choose a Judges
• Find Housing for Artists and Judges
• Photography – During Event, Awards Ceremony
• Develop a Corporate Sponsorship Program

Display Space
Optimally 3+ feet of wall space per artist
This works backwards – Display Space/3 = # artists
Space should be evenly and well lit
Finally, consider the sources and uses of funds. Financial planning is a key element.
Sources of Funds

• $20-50 per artist
• 20-40% Commission per sold painting
• Community and Business Sponsorships
• Donations
• Painting Suppliers’ Sponsorships
• Private Sponsorships
• Grants
• Purchase Awards

Uses of Funds
Minimum $2,000 – $5,000 Advertising & Marketing Budget:

• Cash Prizes
• Venue
• Paid Service (if qualified volunteers are not available)
• Social Event Food & Drink
• Artist Packages

There are so many variations in the events available today. It is important to talk to organizers and artists alike to fully understand the nuances and determine what may, or may not, work for your particular situation.
Thank you for considering hosting a plein air event. They are fun, exciting, engaging and they are a great way to bring art and community together. The benefits are well worth the effort.

From birth to his final days, William Whitaker lived and breathed art. His art and his imprint in the art world will live on for generations into the future. The OPA Master painter was born into a family of artists and musicians. His life could have gone in a very different direction because his father repeatedly told him to “get out of art,’ but thankfully it’s advice he didn’t heed. As a result, Whitaker became the modern-day master who continues to inspire multitudes of artists and collectors world-wide.

The articulate and humorous artist got his start as a child. He learned to draw from his uncle who was one of the top cartoonists at Disney. In an OPA interview with Whitaker in 2016, he said his uncle “was very talented, but he didn’t love what he was doing and eventually quit creating art.” During that interview Whitaker gave great advice that will continue his art legacy. “Follow your feelings,” he added. “You need to really like to do this. You have to have something to say.” Whitaker said we should think of ‘art talent’ as ‘art talentS’. “We all have strengths and weaknesses. Of course painting abilities are all well and good and are expected, but there are other very useful talents. Some of us are good at self-promotion. Some have writing skills. Some are good at public speaking and might have useful musical skills that can get them noticed. Some are excellent teachers with communication skills. Some can run a business and know how to get a good discount on art supplies, he chuckled. Some are organized and can make a good business plan and follow it. There is a talent for managing works of art and recording and filing. Being able to type fast and accurately is very useful. Some are good at research. Some are good at making things, including frames or shipping crates.” Whitaker graduated from the University of Utah, where he studied with portrait artist, Alvin Gittins. In the mid-60’s he lived in Los Angeles where he was art director for Capitol Records until he was recruited to create the now prestigious Illustration Department at Brigham Young University. In recent years he had retired to paint in his private studio.

Whitaker always emphasized the work involved in a successful art career. “What I think takes us all by surprise is how much time it takes each day to manage an art career. Such seemingly little things such as recording, photographing, framing and varnishing take a surprising amount of time.” Putting a painting in a show or gallery before it is time is one of the biggest mistakes artists can make, Whitaker asserted. “It is not a good thing to have a flawed painting hanging in a show. Ideally it would be best to keep everything for a least a year before showing it. That would allow the scales to fall from your eyes so you could see your own work clearly and get rid of the bad ones. Also, it would mean that a work could thoroughly cure before it was varnished. Nobody gets up in the morning and says, “I think I’ll do a mediocre painting today.” They just happen. As our eyes and brains become tired, we lose the ability to judge our own works, but put the painting away for a couple of weeks or a month and when we see it again it’s like it was done by somebody else and we can see it clearly for what it is.” A related problem, he added, is not saving your best work for the best shows or exhibits. “Nothing is as bad as selling your very best work and having nobody but the buyer see it.”

After many years of selling through a local fine art gallery, sudden reality hit hard. The gallery closed its doors and cancer took the owner’s life. She had promoted my work and referred many clients for commission projects. Together we held private showings and sale events in my home studio, sharing expenses and profits. We sold a lot of my paintings over ten years. Efforts to establish new relationships with brick and mortar galleries were disappointing.
I started to explore on-line venues with limited success. Many of these sites charged fees whether my work sold or not. Also, not much artistic quality control going on. Anyone could put up their artwork on the sites. By 2015 I was still exhibiting in one gallery, rotating new paintings in every year. The problem; disappointing sales. Frustration level was high when my technical support department (husband Ray), said one day, “Suzanne, I found an online venue called UGallery, but you have to be juried in. They don’t accept every artist. You must submit high-quality images of your paintings”. I replied, “Oh, you mean like Oil Painters of America? Great!” Ray warned, “You have to jump through some hoops, submit four images of each piece, dimensions, weight, and a bit about your inspiration”. I almost shouted “Better and better. Let’s get started”.
To begin, I submitted five original oil paintings for review by UGallery’s jurying committee. They accepted those first five and I was off to a good start. Beginning in 2015 UGallery has sold my oil paintings on a regular basis.
What I love about UGallery is their energetic marketing approach. The staff manages a newsletter, curates special collections, and are scheduling pop-up art shows around the country. Shipping, handling, and payment are fine tuned. I know Madeline, Margaretta, Samantha, Alex, and Marie mostly through email contacts. This creative staff regularly promotes their artists. As an example, last December I received an inquiry from UGallery. Would I be interested in being interviewed by the New York Times? Well Yes!
Amy Zipkin, a contributing journalist of the New York Times interviewed me by phone and then, bless her, contacted me quite a few times to fact check and nail down details. The Times even sent a photographer out to my studio to get some shots of the artist on site. The article was published February 11th this year in the New York Times Business Day section. Of course, that Sunday was one of our legendary snow storms we are blessed with in northern Illinois winters. We couldn’t get out of our driveway to buy a hard copy, even if the local Speedy Mart had carried the Times. Thank goodness for the online publication. Here’s a link to the story:

 

This is an exciting time!

It seems like more people are spending money again. There are more artists than ever doing really fine work. There are more people studying painting than ever before. There are more competitions, associations, seminars, etc than ever. Clearly the internet and social media have made it possible to see more art and informational posts than ever before. And there’s a huge range of educational options, from workshops to longer-term programs or classes to universities, ateliers, art schools etc. Of course nothing beats seeing art in person so there will always be galleries, museums, studio visits and private collections. In terms of sales, good salespeople and other ‘connectors’ will always be worth their weight in gold as they somehow help unite artists with patrons.
So as artists we have unprecedented opportunities but can sometimes feel lost in a sea of choices with thousands of other talented artists. While we each have our strengths, we are impressed and sometimes a bit intimidated when we see other people doing amazing things. It seems that the best way forward is to take a look at what excites us the most and determine how to keep on that path, always working on building our skills as artists and communicators with the rest of the world.
To borrow from the popular TV commercial, thank you Captain Obvious. Like everything with art (and life) it’s just way more complex than simple observations can sum up. Some of us need to provide for our families and so are tempted to continue doing what has put food on the table, and are hesitant to break out in a new direction. Some of us feel great about our work but struggle to reach a broader audience. Some of us have to carve out time to work because we have non-art jobs or responsibilities. Some of us feel that no matter how hard we work we can never get close to the work being done by giants of the past and present. We may feel all of these things and many others too.
When anxiety and confusion well up in me I sometimes go ‘small’ and ‘large’. Small, as in it is a miracle that molecules came together to construct this amazing world, and us, with our minds, eyes, hands, hearts etc.

Large, as in we are just people living relatively short lives on a planet in a vast universe.

From these perspectives, for me the takeaway is that it is a great blessing to be able to pursue excellence in art and all of the different aspects of being an artist. I try to discern where my truest abilities and interests lie and figure out how to best approach these things intelligently with the time I have, being sure to do what it takes to maintain a balance of all of the things that make life possible and sustainable.
So for me this means a weekly life painting session (it’s not hard to start your own; see my blog ‘Let’s Work Together’, keeping up on promotion with an updated website, Facebook posts, and a monthly newsletter. I am a member of OPA and PSOA and try to enter competitions and attend events and support these terrific groups. I try to teach, mentor, take a few painting trips a year, take a workshop each year, and super important, make my clients, past, present, and future, very pleased that they selected me. Then it’s time to balance the whole life thing (spirituality, family, friends, community, nutrition, exercise, etc…) which is pretty much impossible, so we all just do our best and try to be grateful that we get to be creative. Imagine for a moment if you didn’t have art! We truly are lucky to be alive and engaged in this challenging pursuit.

A sketch has charm because of its truth – not because it is unfinished.

~ Charles Hawthorne

A few years ago, I was painting along a roadside in Wisconsin for the Door County Plein Air Festival and, while focused intently on finishing up what would certainly be seen as a masterpiece someday, I was interrupted by a young art critic who drove past and yelled out “WORST…PAINTING…EVER!”. Now, although it didn’t turn out to be the masterpiece I’d intended, I was convinced this painting showed enough promise to not be the “worst”. And, honestly, if this guy had seen some of my earliest outdoor work he’d need to throw them into the mix as well and probably wouldn’t have spoken with such conviction. But all of this got me thinking – what defines our best and worst efforts outdoors? If the goal of a plein air painting is a finished masterpiece, judging the result is more straightforward. But if the goal is simply to “study” – to learn and gather information in order to develop a finished masterpiece in the studio, it’s a little more difficult to quantify the results. This is especially true if you’re like me and learn quite a bit from making mistakes. If this is the case it might just be entirely possible to paint the “Worst Painting Ever” and also have it be the “Best STUDY Ever”.

THE BEAUTY OF THE STUDY
Since the time I began painting almost 20 years ago, my goal has always been simply to STUDY. To figure out exactly how nature works and translate what I’m seeing into paint. So although I joke that my aim is to paint the “Best Painting Ever Painted”, I’m hardly ever looking for a finished piece outdoors. Instead, I want to capture only the things that I can’t do in the studio – things I can’t get from a photo. I’m taking notes on color, light and atmosphere. And my focus is usually on the shadow shapes where I want to establish their exact value, color and temperature. I’m arranging those shapes to lay the groundwork for overall design but I’m not obsessing about composition at this stage – there’s plenty of time for that in the studio. In fact sometimes when I’m in the field, I’ll often ignore composition all together, especially when time doesn’t allow it… like when an afternoon thunderstorm moves in and I’m about to get struck by lighting. This might make for a bad painting but not necessarily a bad study and definitely a smart one.
Once I get back to the studio where time is more abundant, I’ll take those brief, hurried notes and spend hours, maybe even days working out composition. For me, creating a painting on the spot with the same refinement as a studio piece has never been part of the plan. But, what I’ve found is that within these brief – sometimes hurried notes – occasionally a finished painting emerges all on its own. In fact, a mere study, in it’s brevity can indeed be beautiful – even beyond the beauty of a more refined piece. As Charles Hawthorne, founder of the Cape Cod School of Art once said, “A sketch has charm because of its truth – not because it is unfinished” . I think of it as “poetry” compared to a “novel” – both can be beautiful. And although it’s no use arguing this case with someone at a plein air opening who doesn’t understand why every speck of canvas isn’t covered in paint, there are plenty of examples throughout history where studies qualify as masterpieces. But this doesn’t always happen and sometimes a study is just a study. It may even be the worst painting ever.

JUST A STUDY
And when a painting does fail miserably outdoors (or indoors) I euphemistically call it a “nice study”. If you happen to end up with one of these all is not lost. After all you’ve just spent two hours intently observing the scene… you’re now the visual expert of it. If anyone asks you a question about this place and the two hours you spent there, you have the answer. Once when I was painting near my home, four police cruisers pulled up and one of the officers jumped from his car, approached my setup and, catching his breath asks, “have you seen a short, Hispanic male with a baseball cap running through the area?” My first thought was that I fit this description precisely, but, realizing I wasn’t their suspect I was honored that they had come to me for my visual expertise on the scene. I considered offering my painting as evidence but instead just answered “No”. The point is don’t discount an intense 2-hour visual study of a scene. Many things will happen in those two hours to create the “story” that you want to tell. And be confident that you picked up a thing or two regardless of how the painting turned out. For me, once a painting falls short of my lofty visual goals, I don’t try to whip it into shape in the studio by painting over the top of it and destroying my notes (good notes or bad). And I don’t go back to the scene multiple times with the same canvas. If I return to the scene it’ll be a new attempt, a new story with a new canvas. But what I do instead is use my plein air notes and photos in the studio and seek out the good stuff. I’ll analyze the notes I got right and try to make sense of the notes that are too vague. I’ve learned that even my worst efforts outdoors contain something useful to help read and interpret photos from the scene. There are just too many good, often unintentional, things that happen when we paint outdoors. In our haste to capture a fleeting moment or escape a coming storm, we subsequently distill the scene down to only the essential elements – elements that tell the exact story we want to tell – without all the peripheral distractions. In working fast and simplifying we don’t have time to paint the things we don’t want to or aren’t interested in painting – and that’s a good thing.

LEAVE THE FRAMES AT HOME

Ultimately what I’m saying is RELAX and remember how much fun this is. I teach several workshops throughout the year and I’m always imploring my students to leave their frames at home when we go out painting for the first time. I’m not trying to lower the bar for expectations but simply reminding them that painting outdoors is only one part of the process. The goal is, of course, to take GOOD notes as opposed to BAD ones, but it’s my way of saying don’t put too much pressure on yourself because there’s something to learn from the bad ones too. So my advice to every plein air painter is to get outside, “point to the stands” (as my friend Joshua Been is fond of saying), and paint the worst painting ever, it might just be the most valuable study you’ve ever done.