Handy inventions Plein air painting was able to take off thanks to the invention of box easels and paint tubes.
The box easel, also known as a French easel, is a folding box the size of a brief case that you can store all manner of art supplies in - the easel also comes with telescopic legs so it can easily be set up to support a canvas.
Before paint tubes were invented, painters would have to create their own paints by using different oils to mix powders of pigments with.
Paint tubes not only made paint more accessible to people, but they also made it easy for people to carry paints about with them.
With these two inventions, plein air painting became a lot easier, which was one of the main reasons why it became so popular.
Romantics The practise of painting outdoors first started becoming popular during the late 18th century.
Romanticism was a movement of artistic, literary and cultural development that began in Europe during the late 18th century and it was the Romantics who began looking to nature to create paintings.
They wanted their works to have a sense of authenticity about them, so it was only natural that they should create paintings whose inspiration was the natural world.
Some of the more famous Romantic painters who create plein air paintings include Meindert Hobbema and John Constable.
Impressionists Plein air painting as a movement really began in the late 19th century with the Impressionists.
What they started to do was to go outside and paint the real world as they saw it.
They didn't concentrate on painting stuff they imagined, instead they depicted the impressions the world left on them.
Impressionists were also very interested in the way that light changed colours throughout the day: they would look at the way sunlight changed the look of a landscape at different times of the day and they would try to capture these different effects in their paintings.
Remember that plein air painting isn't synonymous with Impressionism, though it's still an important part of the Impressionist movement.
Some Impressionist painters known for their plein air paintings include Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir.
Barbizon Around the same time the Impressionists were practising plein air painting, a group of painters turned their attention to the life of peasants and their natural surroundings.
These painters lived in Barbizon, a small village outside of Paris.
The focus of these paintings was real people living real lives, not imagined people in imagined settings.
It was all about capturing life as it was.
These painters paved the way for a revolution in France that led to painters observing the world and depicting it in a more realistic way, rather than solely relying on their imagination to create paintings.
The Barbizon School was one of several groups throughout France that developed the practice of plein air painting.
From France plein air painting spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Plein air painting today It's no surprise that plein air painting has never declined in popularity.
While many artists enjoy using their creativity and imagination to create paintings, the act of simply taking your equipment outdoors and depicting the world as you see it has a timeless appeal.
We're instinctively curious and exploring the world around us goes some way to satisfy our curiosity.
There's so much to see out there and plein air painting is a great way to get out there and see what the world has to offer.
The box easel, also known as a French easel, is a folding box the size of a brief case that you can store all manner of art supplies in - the easel also comes with telescopic legs so it can easily be set up to support a canvas.
Before paint tubes were invented, painters would have to create their own paints by using different oils to mix powders of pigments with.
Paint tubes not only made paint more accessible to people, but they also made it easy for people to carry paints about with them.
With these two inventions, plein air painting became a lot easier, which was one of the main reasons why it became so popular.
Romantics The practise of painting outdoors first started becoming popular during the late 18th century.
Romanticism was a movement of artistic, literary and cultural development that began in Europe during the late 18th century and it was the Romantics who began looking to nature to create paintings.
They wanted their works to have a sense of authenticity about them, so it was only natural that they should create paintings whose inspiration was the natural world.
Some of the more famous Romantic painters who create plein air paintings include Meindert Hobbema and John Constable.
Impressionists Plein air painting as a movement really began in the late 19th century with the Impressionists.
What they started to do was to go outside and paint the real world as they saw it.
They didn't concentrate on painting stuff they imagined, instead they depicted the impressions the world left on them.
Impressionists were also very interested in the way that light changed colours throughout the day: they would look at the way sunlight changed the look of a landscape at different times of the day and they would try to capture these different effects in their paintings.
Remember that plein air painting isn't synonymous with Impressionism, though it's still an important part of the Impressionist movement.
Some Impressionist painters known for their plein air paintings include Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir.
Barbizon Around the same time the Impressionists were practising plein air painting, a group of painters turned their attention to the life of peasants and their natural surroundings.
These painters lived in Barbizon, a small village outside of Paris.
The focus of these paintings was real people living real lives, not imagined people in imagined settings.
It was all about capturing life as it was.
These painters paved the way for a revolution in France that led to painters observing the world and depicting it in a more realistic way, rather than solely relying on their imagination to create paintings.
The Barbizon School was one of several groups throughout France that developed the practice of plein air painting.
From France plein air painting spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Plein air painting today It's no surprise that plein air painting has never declined in popularity.
While many artists enjoy using their creativity and imagination to create paintings, the act of simply taking your equipment outdoors and depicting the world as you see it has a timeless appeal.
We're instinctively curious and exploring the world around us goes some way to satisfy our curiosity.
There's so much to see out there and plein air painting is a great way to get out there and see what the world has to offer.
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