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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters

In the mid-19th century impressionists such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Degas, took their paints and easels outdoors to better capture the effects of light and air. Thus was the technique of plein air painting born and artists worldwide have been doing it ever since. One contemporary group of plein air painters in the Western United States are particularly drawn outdoors by the Rocky Mountains. Since the founding of the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters (RMPAP) in 2001, it has maintained an active schedule of demonstrations and paint-outs (painting events with a show/sale). One of its biggest and most enjoyable events took place in Winter Park between July 26th and August 3rd this year and involved 40 invited artists and over 250 newly created paintings done in the incredibly beautiful Frasier Valley/Winter Park area.

MORNING TREASURE, shown here and painted by Jake Gaedtke, was awarded Best of Show and is but one example of the fine work produced during the event. More of Gaedtke’s remarkable ability to bring to life the Rocky Mountain landscape, his consistently lively brushwork and eye for detail and color, can be viewed at http://www.landscape-art.com/.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw this painting at the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters show in Winter Park. It's lovely! -Bonnie Gangelhoff, senior editor, Southwest Art magazine. See our October issue, page 168.yfkdqpmd

Alyce Barry said...

I'm amazed that it's a painting, it's so real-looking I would have thought it was a photograph.

Anonymous said...

Plein Air painting offers unique challenges, especially with so much information to sort through and layout. It is an amazing skill and this work of Jake's illustrated that he had an intimate connection, and the skill to capture the beauty of this scene successfully.