Artist Magi Leland and Cousen Rose Gallery owner Zita Cousens collaborated last week to reinvent plein air painting. Plein air work is usually done on site, but the two modified the concept to bring it to the gallery. Ms. Leland painted a study at Gay Head Cliffs, and worked on a more complete version in the Cousen Rose courtyard the next day.
This approach allowed the public to watch a work in progress, then go inside the gallery to see other paintings by the Portsmouth, N.H., resident. Ms. Leland has been visiting the Island throughout the summer since she was 2 years old, and she paints vividly colored Island landscapes.
The joy of plein air for her is experiencing everything around you. “The key,” she explains, “is having been there and found a location that speaks to you.” And people showed up to watch her. Some wanted to know how long she had been painting. Others asked how long it would take her to finish the painting in progress. “Grown-ups want to tell you their story,” said the artist-in-residence, formerly at Brixham Friends Montessori School, and currently at Learning Skills Academy in Rye, N.H. “I love kids especially,” she said. “Their curiosity makes me want to articulate what I am doing.” The children who stopped by asked what she was doing and what inspires her.
Ms. Leland, whose paintings are evocatively atmospheric, finds it a privilege to be exposed to the clay at Gay Head Cliffs. “It’s such a close-up study of glacial history,” she says. The particular value of plein air painting for her is that the more she looks, the more she sees. “You’re standing looking at a subject for hours.” She finds what excites her in the view and lets everything else go.
“Bringing your plein air study to a gallery is a great way to share with the public and to educate them,” Ms. Leland says. “When you educate, you help them appreciate. I love to share what I’ve learned.” When she paints plein air for the public, somebody may see something or ask a question that causes her to resolve a visual problem and push the painting even further. In this way, the plein air process becomes interactive.
Ms. Leland has been showing her work at Cousen Rose Gallery for three years. Before that, she exhibited at the former Dragonfly Gallery, run by Holly Alaimo, the woman she calls her mentor. “She’s the reason I paint,” this artist says. Ms. Leland worked for 18 years as a jeweler, falling in love with copper enameling and colors she could use while working for goldsmith D.H. Ostrander and as an engraver for Towle Silversmith.
“Color is the privilege you earn from the hard work of studying,” Ms. Leland says. In the off-season she focuses more on figure painting. “I consider the human form a landscape. Studying the figure helps bring up your chops. There’s a sensuality in both [figure painting and landscape].” It’s like how a musician plays the scales, according to Ms. Leland.
Magi Leland, Cousen Rose Gallery, 71 Upper Circuit Avenue, Oak Bluffs, through Labor Day. For more information, visit cousenrose.com.