Richland Library summer learning series: Plein Air au Maison

Although not instructions for actually piloting a magic carpet, this activity might carry you to some beautiful places. With a humble nod to impressionist painters, like Monet, Van Gogh and Cassatt who sat in the heat of the day to paint the views in front of them, we’re calling this activity Plein Air au Maison (“Open Air in the House”).

If canceled travel plans or dashed hopes for a weekend getaway to the mountains or the beach has you feeling cooped up, why not bring those sweeping views to you? Very simply put, in this activity, you’re going to find an image of a beautiful place and get lost in it for a while; by drawing, sketching, painting, doodling or whatever approach strikes your fancy.

MATERIALS

▪ An image of a view that somehow grabs you

▪ Paper (any blank surface will do — even the inside of a finished cereal box)

▪ Pencil and eraser

▪ Any source of ink, such as pens or markers (optional)

▪ Any source of color, such as crayons, color pencils, markers or paints (optional)

METHOD

Find an image of a place that somehow grabs you. If you’re new to drawing or painting, pick an image with clear bold lines or sections without too much busy detail. Distant mountain ranges and views of the sea-sky horizon and coast can offer this. Possible image sources include: books; eBooks; your phone; wall calendars; magazines or travel brochures

Put your pencil to paper and lightly sketch the borders you’ll be creating your landscape inside. Look at your chosen image and decide how big you want to make it. Will it be square, rectangular or round? Remember, the point of this is the moment in time you’ll spend connecting with this beautiful place.

Use your pencil to lightly sketch out the most basic regions or sections of your image. Notice in what portion of the image the sky ends and the land begins. Be ready to erase and adjust the visual landmarks as you go. Find landmarks that connect one section to another. How much space does the sky take up? Are there general horizontal lines? Where are they in relation to each other?

With your pencil or your color sources, begin to add shading and color to your sketch. Sit for a moment and gaze again at your original image. Begin to look for and notice the details of shade — dark to light and the shades of the colors. See the contrasting shades of blues, grays, purples, etc. See the vertical lines’ differing lengths.

Take creative license as you fill in the details of your beautiful place. Make it yours. Your experiences, your perspectives, your skill sets as a whole are absolutely unique in this world – and are therefore intrinsically valuable. Your depiction of this place that somehow calls to you will be YOUR interpretation of it. The time you spend (re)creating this place makes it a part of you, and you a part of it. Your sketch, drawing or painting will serve as a souvenir of the peaceful moment in time you spent in your place with it and in it while really seeing it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This activity is not an art class on how to crank out a perfect landscape. It’s about spending time getting to know a beautiful place through looking at its details closely enough to recreate it on paper. This is about what you see and what you discover to be meaningful and noteworthy. You can do this again and again, expanding your world with every “place.” Find a view that speaks to you, pick up your pencil, grab some paper and get yourself lost on your own magic carpet ride to somewhere beautiful.

Don’t forget to show us what you’ve made this summer, using #ilearnbecause.

Amy Allen, Branch Librarian I Richland Library Southeast

This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Richland Library summer learning series: Plein Air au Maison."