En plein air refers to the practice of painting outdoors on location and is French for "outdoors." This is the opposite of painting in a studio. Below is a plein air painting by John Sargent of Claude Monet painting outdoors. Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood (1885) by John Singer Sargent . Oil on canvas. 54.0 × 64.8 cm. Tate Gallery , London. [Image from Wikipedia .] See more works by Claude Monet from artsy.net . Since learning more about this practice of painting and drawing, I am slowly beginning to try it out. This weekend, I had an extra hour, so I went to a park and found the tree below, which I painted on location in watercolors. I used a water brush (inspired by James Gurney's post here ) and a portable watercolor palette that I added some paints to. I wanted to do a study of a tree and found this perfect young oak as a subject. The next day, I was at the playground with my wife and son, when s...
Mixing art and life