Every summer, the dedicated artists of Aire MV bring their easels, brushes, palettes, and paint tubes out of the studio into the open air to capture the beauty of the Island and its ever-changing light.
The British landscape artist John Constable pioneered working “en plein air” in about 1813. However, the invention of portable canvases and easels allowed the practice to develop, particularly in France in the early 1830s, with the Barbizon School. The introduction of paint in tubes increased the ease with which artists could venture outside. Starting in the late 1860s, the French Impressionists developed a style using short, visible brushstrokes of pure color to convey the transient nature of seeing nature with the naked eye.
Valentine Estabrook began Aire MV 11 years ago with Kanta Lipsky: “We both loved plein air, where you paint a scene in two hours or less. We talked to other friends, and that’s how we started.”
This year, Estabrook and her current partner, Judy Howells, identified the locations where the painters met up or went on their own this summer. They traveled to Duarte and Chilmark Pond, the ferry in Oak Bluffs, and Owen Park in Vineyard Haven, where I spoke with some of the artists during their creative process.
Howells was there working away that hot August afternoon. She initially got involved in plein air painting in California, and had just completed a master naturalist course: “I love being outside. It’s about the people you meet, the sounds you hear, the air, and being submerged in nature.
“Painting from photographs just wasn’t doing it for me. There is so much visual information that you don’t get in the studio. You have to understand how the light hits the forms and reacts at different times of the day. And photographs lie.”
“We paint everyplace from Aquinnah to our favorite beach,” Howell explains. She adds, “There are certain themes that we can interpret on our own.” This year, they include the artist’s home landscape, an Island farm, and a harbor.
It is Judith Drew Schubert’s first year with the group, but she is no stranger to plein air painting. “I find it supportive,” she says of Aire MV. Just as the light changes rapidly, so too did the scene Schubert was capturing. Situated on the hill in Owen Park looking out over the harbor, she was waiting patiently for the ferry to arrive to include it in her scene, before it pulled out and returned to Woods Hole.
Rebecca Everett was nearby. It is her first year as well: “I’ve been painting outside off and on since 1981. I had to stop for a big chunk of time to make enough money to live.” Retired from working multiple jobs, she is now able to paint full-time. Her passion for working in nature comes from the direct interaction with it, and the changing light. “There’s nothing like that. Even if you paint the same motif, each comes out completely different.”
Everett admits, though, “It’s hard to work fast enough to keep up with the light. You’re not supposed to ‘chase’ it.” She takes photographs for reference when necessary. But she tells me that working in nature helps you learn how light shapes the form and informs the colors.
Stylistically, Everett eschews strict realism: “I always look for a composition that has a more abstract quality. And sometimes you don’t know what you did until you stop.”
Alena Grady, also a newbie, says, “They’ve been very welcoming. I’m glad to be part of it.” As a studio artist, this is her first season of plein air painting: “I wanted to challenge myself. You’re learning new skills. And getting fresh air is a bonus. It’s a challenge, but it feels great when you succeed.
“I feel like the Island is just a gem for finding subjects to paint. For me, painting is meditative, so it’s the same meditative state, but in the fresh air.”
Even though it is getting darker earlier, and the sun is lower on the horizon, we will have the opportunity to recall our quickly fading summer at the group’s annual show at Old Sculpin Gallery, from Sept. 14 to Sept. 20. Members, who also include Lowely Finnerty, Marjorie Mason, Kate Taylor, Elizabeth Schule, Janis Langley, Kim McCarthy, Liz Taft, and Gail Rodney, are eager to share their visions of nature’s bounty on the Island.
Aire MV will be at the Old Sculpin Gallery from Sept. 14 to 20. Opening reception is Sunday, Sept. 15, from 5 to 7 pm. See a preview of the artists’ work on Instagram at AireMV2024.
