The meaning of painting en plein air today does not lie in a vague “inspiration from nature,” in capturing the light of a moment or the spirit of a place. No. Painting en plein air is first and foremost an experience, exquisitely pictorial.
It was initially the Romantic spirit that drove painters away from the city and emerging technology, with the aim of chasing the changing light of the sun, capturing, in that continuous movement, that sudden acceleration, a unique moment in the passing of the seasons.
There is nothing more free and liberating than painting en plein air. Painting “en plein air,” painting in the open air, has been presented from the beginning as an alternative to painting in the studio, but the significance of this innovation is not properly understood if it is understood only as a change of subject: painting en plein air means shifting the focus from the subject to the light; in this sense, it is the main path for painting, without which painting enters into crisis as an art form in its own right.
Laura Grosso