Plein Air Painting is a term used to describe painting from life. It usually refers to landscape, marine, or townscape painting, but technically does include still life painting when done 'en plein air' or outdoors. Plein air painting is very challenging because you have to contend with the ever changing conditions of light and weather. Because of the changes in the light, when painting plein air it is usually necessary to finish a picture in a relatively short time frame, usually one to three hours.

For this reason, plein air paintings are often in a small format. Oftne they are painted in small plein air painting boxes, called 'pochades'.

Plein air painting has its roots in 19th-century Europe. the Englishman John Constable was perhaps the first and rather than using the traditional landscape formulas, sought inspiration and material working outdoors, or 'en plein air'. He made sketches outdoors, then worked on them in the studio.

About the same time in France, in Barbizon, a small village outside Paris, a group of artists focused their work on peasant life and the landscape in which they lived. Notable amongst these painters were Francois Millet and Gustave Courbet. They too challenged the conventions of their day, and chose everyday subjects such as workers in the fields, rather than the traditional cliches. Again, these artists made plein air painting sketches in the field, and then worked these plein air sketches into larger paintings in the studio.

These Barbizon painters, as they came to be called, laid the foundation for the period of French Impressionism in the late-19th century and the other impressionism movements around the world. Lead by Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edouard Degas, Auguste Renoir, et. al. the impressionists worked both plein air and in the studio. They took account of recent theories of how the eye physically sees color, and focused on capturing the effects of light on objects and the landscape. Working mainly outdoors, their plein air paintings were at first criticized for being unfinished paintings, but later, their approach to plein air painting became the standard for painting the landscape, until the abstract movements of the mid 20th century.

Painting en plein air (in the open air) became mainstream in many other parts of the world. In the United States Californian Guy Rose, traveled to France to study with Monet, and other painters such as Edgar Payne, Willliam Ritschel, Armin Hansen became famous for their plein air paintings. Other plein air painting colonies developed on the East Coasts, and in the American Southwest. In Europe there were plein air painting movements in England, Northern Europe and Scandinavia, and in Italy with a group called the Macchiaiaole and Post Macchiaiole painters. Click on one of the plein air painting questions below to find out which Virtual Art Academy course will teach you about that specific topic in plein air painting.