State of Relaxation
State of relaxation was the title I gave to this painting while plien air painting on Little Travers Bay in Michigan. This sail boat was painted in plien air on a day that the rain was off and on all day long. I think the title reflex's the way I felt painting that day. Today I am off to paint on a farm in Jackson county the day is sunny with no rain in site. Me at my box or plien air easel. En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Impressionism . The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes (resembling modern toothpaste tubes). Previously, each painter made their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil . It was during this period that the " Box Easel ",...