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Plein Air Painting at Edgewood Farms, Truro
September 15, 2023 at 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
During the opening reception for Truro Treasures 2023, Addison Art Gallery and Truro Center for the Arts will present artists painting en plein air at beautiful Edgewood Farms. It is suggested that you arrive early (sunset will be at about 7:00). Carpooling is strongly advised.
Plein air, French for “open air,” is used to describe paintings created outdoors. In Italian, the term would be alfresco. In the 1870s, the growth of plein air painting flourished with the introduction of paints in tubes. (Previously, painters made their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigments with linseed oil.) French Impressionists, including Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Edouard Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, advocated en plein air painting. Charles Webster Hawthorne, who is attributed with starting the art colony in Provincetown, came to Cape Cod to teach painting en plein air.
“With plein air painting, the eye perceives light and shadows from direct observation. Painting from memory is a challenge; you cannot possibly remember the nuances of reality. Photography can flatten space and distort perspective and color—while being helpful in the studio, nothing substitutes for being there.” —Paul Schulenburg