Plein Air Easton Podcast

As one of the founders of Plein Air Easton, artist Nancy Tankersley is a visionary that anticipated the growth of the Plein Air movement and took that opportunity to begin what has grown into the largest outdoor painting competition in the country. Tim and Marie ask Nancy about the beginnings of Plein Air Easton, her definition of Plein Air, and the broader meaning of the growing movement.

Nancy Tankersley began her career as a portraitist but entered the gallery scene with figurative paintings of people at work and at leisure. Currently as she searches for the unpredictable, Tankersley moves between landscape, figures and still life. Incorporating non- traditional tools , supports and technologies for her paintings she remains faithful to her impressionistic style.

Active in the current plein air movement, and a founder of Plein Air Easton, she travels worldwide participating in competitions, judging and teaching. In 2018,2019 and 2020 she was invited to be an instructor and demonstrator at the Plein Air Convention in Santa Fe and released two instructional videos with Lilliedahl Videos. In 2016 and 2017 she was invited to exhibit at the prestigious Masters Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club in NYC. Recent honors include Best of Show at Parrsboro, Nova Scotia International Plein Air 2018, Best of Show at the Lighthouse Plein Air Festival 2017 and the Dickinson Award for Best Painting by a Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society 2016 Annual Juried Exhibit. In 2019 she was selected to be the Featured Artist at the 49th Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland.

She is a Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society, the American Society for Marine Art, and the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters and also holds memberships in the Washington Society for Landscape Painters and the Salmagundi Club. Founder and Director of the Easton Studio, a workshops facility begun in Easton in 2010, the artist mentors and teaches workshops and also sponsors workshops by nationally known painters.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

Artist Nicholas O'Leary won the Quick Draw his first time at Plein Air Easton in 2019 earning him an automatic entry into the following festival, but when COVID altered the landscape of international travel he found himself unable to cash in his award. With a safer situation in 2022, Nicholas is finally returning to our competition. Jess and Tim talk with Nicholas about his inspiration and his take on the Plein Air scene in Norway.

Nicholas O'Leary (born in 1986 in Gisborne, New Zealand) has a degree in Architecture from the University of Auckland (2009). Since graduating he has lived and worked in Bergen, Norway, wher he can be found hiking in the mountains with his easel strapped to his backpack in often challenging conditions.

He has painted since childhood and has studied under many artists, most notably with Odd Nerdrum in Norway.

O'Leary works largely from life whereby the observation of previously unnoticed subtleties are prioritised. The recognition of which allow O'Leary to bend physical rules in his paintings and challenge our perceptions of truth and deception, reality and fantasy.

The accululation and manipulation of observations is not limited by a specific subject matter. He paints across the board, and has won international prizes in portraiture, figurative paintings, larger imaginative compositions, landscapes, cityscapes, and still lifes.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear.

Watercolor artist Thomas Bucci talks with Tim and Jess about his careers that led him to art and the era he grew up in that felt that careers in art were risky and not likely to succeed. He proved them all wrong when he made more selling his architectural renderings than he did as an architect.

"I've chosen watercolor for its ability to quickly suggest form with loose washes and to conjure the illusion of detail with crisp brushwork. I also love the gestural quality, capriciousness, and spontaneity of a transparent medium. The way I approach watercolor requires me to work quickly and I'm willing to take the risks associated with that to fully realize its potential."

"I am always actively looking for ideas for paintings. Sometimes the scene serves up a ready painting idea and I just have to put it down on paper. More often ideas come from something less complete; a glimpse of atmospheric effects, the way sunlight lands on a surface, or an element in a landscape. The most important part of painting for me is not actually painting, but the mental preparation that I'm doing all the time, but I do paint at every opportunity. Small pencil or watercolor sketches are also a key part of my process."

"I paint in the studio but I prefer to work from life and on location, drawing inspiration directly from a subject. However, I treat what I see in front of me as a suggestion that can be manipulated as needed. A painting is not bound by existing light conditions, actual colors, or physical elements. I often move, eliminate, and add things to make a composition. This is the real joy of painting for me. I feel a painting is successful when I envision the result first and then make that happen. If a painting succeeds without a plan, it's just luck."

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

Plein Air Easton alumnus Leonard Mizerek joins Tim and Marie to chat about his long history competing at Plein Air Easton, his recent move to Florida, and his painting trips abroad. Leonard also talks about his approach to preparing his palette and how different painting surfaces impact his works.

Leonard Mizerek Fellow, ASMA, nurtured his artistic love of nature while growing up and painting in the Brandywine Valley and countryside of nearby Pennsylvania. His early influence was with the Pennsylvania Impressionists and Brandywine School.

Known for his colorful, luminous seascapes and expressive brushwork, Leonard paints on site deriving inspiration from the many nearby coastal locations as well as harbors throughout the world. A central theme throughout Leonard's work is his use of light. In Mizerek's words, " Light alters the color of all objects and touches those nearby. It sets a mood and evokes emotion, which I strive to portray in my work. I often explore various methods to interpret the way I view nature. I prefer marine subjects because I enjoy the way water reflects the floating objects, as well as the sky and time of day. It mirrors shapes and intensifies light. I paint outdoors to capture the light first hand and bring out all its color and luminosity.

Throughout the last few years, Leonard participated in several invitational Plein Air events including Mystic, Annapolis, winning Honorable Mention and Easton Md. winning Second Place in the Quick Draw event. He was featured painting live on TV France3 during a major antique boat festival. His painting was recently purchased by the Minnesota Marine Art Museum.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

Today Tim and Marie are joined by artist Karl Terry all the way from the Isle of Oxney in Kent. This raucous conversation has Karl spinning some of his favorite stories and recounting various mishaps he has experienced throughout his painting career.

"I paint landscapes and cityscapes both here in the UK and abroad. I have been fortunate to paint with many of the UK & USA 's finest living landscape painters and am fortunate to have many of them as friends.. I am proud to be a member of The Royal Society of Marine Artists, The Wapping Group of Artists and the Rye Society of Artists.

I live on the Isle of Oxney in Kent and paint outside in all weathers. My work is an immediate response to what I see and feel when immersed in the everchanging landscape. This process has opened my eyes to the beauty that can be found everywhere, even in the mundane."

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

As an early curator at the Academy Art Museum, Henry Coe's artistic roots in Talbot County go back quite a ways. Tim and Marie talked with Henry about his history as an artist and the evolutions of plein air art becoming a competition.

"I received a BA in English from Roanoke College and an MFA in painting from Maryland Institute College of Art. I began painting seriously on the eastern shore of Maryland while working as curator in Easton at The Academy of Arts and teaching at Chesapeake College. I was drawn to the low horizon and the big sky: a Dutch landscape quality of light reflected off of the water and back into the clouds. I spent seven months painting in China through a Maryland "sister state" relation with Anhui Province and accompanied a Maryland State Arts Council exhibit which included my work to Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. I have done three artist's residencies in France and made many other painting visits there. Since 2016 I have participated in numerous plein air events, several times in Plein Air Easton. Over the years I have shown regularly in galleries in Chicago, Houston and Baltimore. I work in oils on a large and small scale and prefer to work en plein air as much as possible. I like to paint the lengthening shadows and lowering light that occur toward the end of day or the softer light of early morning. Ideally, I want my work to have a sense of light traveling through air in space. Having a palpable sense of air in a painting is important to me. The light and shadow define the mundane objects of a landscape I see as disappearing: family farms or the "rural industrial" look that was once representative of many small towns. I have worked primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region, coastal Maine, Texas and western France."

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

Plein Air artist Crista Pisano is known for her tiny paintings and big personality. Tim and Jess ask Crista about her origins as a young ballerina, her job painting German Christmas ornaments, and her trademark yellow Jeep (which is really more of a butterscotch color).

Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Crista began painting in oils in 1989 under the instruction of John Phillip Osborne at the Ridgewood Art Institute in Ridgewood, NJ. She graduated from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in 2000, receiving a Bachelors Degree of fine arts painting, and in 2003, received a Masters Degree of Fine arts Painting from the New York Academy Graduate School of Figurative Art.

Crista paints landscapes mostly en plein air as well as in her studio in Nyack, NY, and is known for painting on a small scale. Influenced by the Hudson River School, she also loves the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian Painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Some of her favorite artists are George Inness, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Martin Johnson Heade, and Edward Lear.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

At the 2021 Plein Air Easton festival, Lon Brauer won the Judge's Choice award with his piece "Solitary Man". In today's episode, Tim and Marie sit down with Lon to talk about his unique style, and Tim works on getting his name correct.

Lon Brauer is an American artist known for his work in figure and plein air landscape. He has a BFA from Washington University and an MFA from Fontbonne University – both in St. Louis, Missouri.

Born in 1955 Brauer's esthetic leans toward early 20th Century Realism as well as the Golden Age of illustration. This coupled with a sprinkling of Abstract Expressionism results in a mash up of the traditional and the avant guard. Consider it a salad of Eakins, Henri, Wyeth, and DeKooning.

Brauer's work is firmly rooted in figurative themes with a strong emphasis on drawing. His subject matter ranges from the conceptual to the concrete. In his work he develops a strong foundation composition on which to hang the paint. He feels that painting should be primarily about the paint itself as it describe subject. The subject of a painting is only a part of the story. The way the paint is applied and manipulated speaks to the making of an image and drives the narrative - the emotional narrative.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear.

In the first episode of 2022, Tim and Jess sit down with Kim VanDerHoek about how she found success as a fine artist NOT by selling herself but rather by building relationships.

Kim VanDerHoek is an American contemporary fine artist who creates vibrant, textural oil paintings of landscapes and urban scenes in her Southern California studio.

Born in Southern California and raised in the mountains of Big Bear City, Kim spent many hours as a child climbing trees, sledding down snow-covered hills, horseback riding and hiking through the woods. Surrounded by the wild beauty of the forest Kim developed an early appreciation for the outdoors and a fascination for urban environments, which she continues to explore today through painting.

She learned to paint by painting en Plein Air because it combined her love of being outside, creating art and studying from life. "I enjoy the challenges Plein Air painting poses. Dealing with the weather, changing light and other hurdles of outdoor painting has forced me to to have a plan for each painting, to paint with commitment and to fearlessly experiment ." Kim feels that through Plein Air painting she has gained a better understanding of the effects of light and atmosphere. She aims to translate those effects into her studio paintings. Currently, she is working on a series of studio paintings featuring aerial views.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear.

Plein Air artist Tim Kelly is no stranger to controversy. His attention-grabbing submissions have won awards that led to debate amongst the festival participants. This years Grand Prize winning painting, "A Little Bit Louder Now", was no exception, having been painted indoors. Jess and Tim Weigand talk with Tim Kelly (from a Popeye's parking lot) to get his take on this and other controversies of the past.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected].

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.