Artists to take in the Plein Air

Artist and gallery owner Michael Lewis poses with his painting "Barn in May" outside The Mission gallery in Grants Tuesday July, 15. Lewis will teach the final week of the Plein Air Painters of the West workshop series which runs from July, 21 thru August, 25. [photo by Cable Hoover / Independent]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Five classically trained, traditional outdoor artists will teach a series of one-week workshops at The Mission in Grants, beginning July 21, as members of the “Plein Air Painters of the West.”

“Plein Air” is a French term meaning “open air painting.”
Michael Lewis, owner of The Mission in Grants, said each instructor prefers seven to eight artists, but as many as 15 will be allowed in each class.

One of the leading Plein Air artists is Jie Xiangyuan from Georgia.

Xiangyuan is a noted background artist, stylist and visual development artist for Disney Studios and Fox Feature Animation Studios. His credits includes work on “Mulan,” “Tarzan,” “Lilo and Stitch,” “Brother Bear” and “Ice Age 2.”
The students taking these workshops are already mostly established artists who want to learn how to improve their traditional landscape, outdoor painting, Lewis said.

“This is the first of what we plan as an annual workshop,” Lewis said. “We are looking at making this two workshops a year, one in early summer and one in the fall, because the fall colors are beautiful,” Peggy Lewis, Michael’s wife said.
The styles being taught for artists from around the county who attend the workshops, will primarily be classical, traditional paining, not something students are able to find in colleges or universities these days, Michael Lewis said.

Marc Holmes, a concept artist and designer for Sega Games in San Francisco, will be one of the instructors.

Holmes said he paints as a hobby and plans to turn professional when he retires from Sega.

“The weather will be excellent and I am looking forward to the workshop,” he said.

Full semester of art

The workshops range in price from $500 to $650, and each student is responsible for his or her own lodging and meals for the week

Two three-hour classes will be conducted each day, and Lewis said it is like taking a full semester of art at a college or university condensed into a week.

Students have already signed up from Canada, Ohio, Washington, and New Mexico, including Norwalk, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif.

Plein Air

“Plein Air painting is classical in style and is not modern art,” Lewis said.

Modern art largely allows the artist to be creative in painting what he sees, to make the colors hit his feelings, his desires and does not pay much attention to reality. That is what is being taught in colleges and universities today, Lewis said.
The Plein Air classical style of art is to be accurate in drawing and painting, to interpret the colors correctly.
“It is a lot more work,” he said. “It takes a lot more study and work and you are not as free to express yourself.”
The workshops will help the Grants economy, a little, he said.

He said he expects each person attending the workshops to spend more than $1,300, including airfare, transportation, lodging and meals.

The Plein Air Painters of the west have produced a beautiful coffee table art book, featuring several paintings of each of the 10 artists who make up the group, including Lewis, one of the founding members.

The books are $52 each and will be in galleries where the artists are showing and each will have a few as well, Lewis said.

Information: (505) 285-4632
On the net: www.papwest.com
To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 285-4560