EVENTS
OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, November 4, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Wege Gallery
PLEIN AIR PAINTING WORKSHOP
Saturday, November 5, 10 am - 12 pm
Wege Center for the Arts
Join artist Leslie Baum for an outdoor plein air painting experience. Registered participants will meet at the Wege Center for the Arts for an introduction to Baum's practice, watercolor techniques, and The Plein Air Project. Participants will pair off and select an outdoor site to paint. Watercolor supplies will be provided. We'll meet again at the end of the session for tea and a viewing of Leslie Baum's exhibition at the Wege Gallery, THE PLEIN AIR PROJECT.
Please dress appropriately for the weather. We recommend you bring a tote bag or backpack for carrying supplies. A limited number of folding chairs will be available. You are welcome to bring your own watercolor supplies. Supplies are limited / Registration is required.
Leslie Baum, “collage study for shaping the day: pj and lmb,” 2022. collaged printouts, 10.5” x 8"
Welcome to the Plein Air Project. At its heart is an invitation. “Come paint with me,” I ask friends and near strangers, artists and nonartists alike. We choose a park, a garden, or a backyard, and I bring what we need: the paper, watercolors, brushes, often a snack. Once settled on our view, I set up my table and we paint side by side on little folding chairs.
Since 2017, I have hosted more than a hundred fifty such painting dates, both in person and, during the pandemic, mediated by Zoom. The conditions that define the experience—the act of making art side by side, sharing conversation, closely observing a view—nurture a sense of presence and an intimacy that feels meaningful and new. I hold on to all the watercolors produced on these occasions—both mine and those painted by my companions—and this plein air watercolor archive guides the imagery found in the larger acrylic paintings. In my studio, I am in dialogue with the watercolors, riffing on and responding to their formal, emotional, and geographical layers and discovering a visual language that synthesizes the idiosyncrasies of my own mark making and those of my companions.
The emotional content of a painting date—the vulnerability of this shared experience—is as much the subject of these works as the landscapes they evoke. This emotional content permeates the process: the conversations shared, the personal details revealed, and the bonds of friendship strengthened while painting together en plein air. The feelings evoked by my memories of the date pushes the final, larger works toward their own often surprising outcomes. A selection of my plein air watercolors and a small number of works by my painting companions accompany the larger paintings. I invite you to explore the stories they tell in communion with the larger works.
The fullness of the Plein Air Project can be viewed at pleinairarchive.com. There you’ll find an interactive record of all the watercolors, portraits I took of my painting companions, reflections on the experience in their own words, views of our painting locations, and a stunning essay by Renaissance Society curator Karsten Lund.
—Leslie Baum
