About Plein Air

Plein-air painting is, in its strictest sense, the practice of painting landscape pictures out-of-doors; more loosely, the achievement of an intense impression of the open air (French: plein air) in a landscape painting [1].

I began plein air painting in 2010 and have been enjoying the development of my craft in the outdoors since. In 2021, I began to use a home-made pochade box to both store supplies and support my paper as I work. It is freeing to be able to create artwork while carrying simple tools: a backpack, watercolors, water and a small tripod.

Ancient footpaths were worn into the soft tuff at Tsankawi. This site was habitated by ancestral pueblo people and has not been excavated. It has a distinctly different aesthetic to the Pueblo sites in Frijoles Canyon found in the main section of Bandelier National Monument.

The Cathedral Spires area is a National Natural Landmarks. It is an excellent example of joint-controlled weathering of granite, and is the only area of its kind in the upper Great Plains and northern Rocky Mountains. In addition, there is a disjunct relict stand of limber pine in the landmark. [2]

Wind Cave National Park [3] is in the southwestern corner of South Dakota. The park's prairie and pine forests are home to bison, elk and pronghorn antelopes.