Cheryl Roberts Lee’s “Rocky Mountain Plein Air”

A statement from the artist:

Sharing some of my process occurred to me while I was deciding which Plein Air paintings to share with you, the audience. Plein Air became the term for painting outdoors when the Impressionists were so bold as to leave the formal schools of realism and gather up as a group of artists and paint in the atmosphere, or as I call it, outdoors. Art for them became more abstract and “loose”; not every detail was included in the painting. I resonated with this Plein Air style soon after I began to study painting.

My process varies but I usually paint outside and finish a painting or it can be called a study in the morning light 1-2 hours. If I take a particular appreciation for the study, I bring it back to the studio and draw charcoal sketches to get a feel for what a larger painting would render. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The process is the gift of painting – not the product.

When a painting is chosen and purchased, that joy becomes a very different feeling, something resonates with the buyer such as place, colors, depth, remembrance, whatever it is, it then becomes the owner’s joy.