Event Date: Wednesday October 13 - Sunday 17, 2021
EVENT NAME: Farm to Forest Plein Air Festival
LOCATION: The farms and forests of central Louisiana – think Kisatchie, Longleaf Vista, Inglewood Farm, Lake Buhlow, the Dairy Barn (across from Buhlow)
DATE: October 13-17 2021
For festival information, please contact Olivia at 318-443-3458 or ohelmer@lsua.edu
WHAT IS PLEIN AIR
En plein air is a French expression meaning “in the open air”, and refers to the act of painting outdoors with the artist’s subject in full view. Plein air artists capture the spirit and essence of a landscape or subject by incorporating natural light, color and movement into their works.
The high point of plein air art came with the emergence of Impressionism in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Artists of that period who painted outdoor landscapes included Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cezanne and Van Gogh. Interest in outdoor painting has remained constant since the twentieth century. Today’s artists carry on the traditions of these past masters by capturing light and movement in landscapes that can only come from seeing the subject outdoors in its natural form.
The last twenty years have seen a resurgence of interest in plein air painting in the United States. During this time, groups of plein air painters began gathering together to paint at single locations or within certain geographic boundaries. These “Paint Outs” are now very popular and give artists a chance to share their talents and creativity with the public and with one another.
2021 Festival Juror: Phil Sandusky
Phil Sandusky is a nationally renowned plein air impressionist landscape and cityscape painter who has had 36 solo exhibits in New Orleans and across the country. Though he is also an accomplished portrait and figure painter, he is best known for his cityscapes of New Orleans. He studied academic art privately from a very early age, and also, having an aptitude in math and science, graduated from Jacksonville University with a BA in Physics in 1980. In keeping with his dual interest in science, Sandusky has tempered his painting with an understanding of vision that goes beyond the age old dictums about optics, light, and perspective to venture into the realms explored by modern vision science. He has written four books, New Orleans en Plein Air, Painting Katrina, Jacksonville Through a Painter’s Eyes, and New Orleans Impressionist Cityscapes. He has also been the subject of, and often himself written, many articles in such national periodicals as “American Artist”, and “Plein Air Magazine.” His many speaking engagements include delivering the keynote address at the 2017 Plein Air South conference. He is one of 276 dead and living artists entered in A Unique Slant of Light, the official bicentennial art history of Louisiana, commissioned by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.