“Plein Air” means “open air” and signifies outdoor painting that captures nature’s light. Plein Air painting became famous in France in the 19th century. The invention of paints in tubes enabled impressionist artists, such as Van Gogh and Monet, to paint outdoors, en plein air.
"Not until the late 1860s, with the work of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro, the leaders of Impressionism, did painting en plein air become more popular. This change came about from 1881, when Monet, in his efforts to capture the true effects of light on the colour of landscape at any given moment, began to carry several canvases at once into the out-of-doors. On each he began a painting of the same subject at a different time of day; on subsequent days, he continued to work on each canvas in succession as the appropriate light appeared." Britannica
Artists
June 2018
Featured artist: Susan Johnson
Calendar
May 2018
Featured artist: Michael Dadasovich
October 2017
Featured artist: Iris Sabre
Reception: Oct 14, 4-6
September 2017
Featured artist: Stephen Berry
Reception: September 9, 4-6
November 2017
Featured artist: Samantha McNally
Reception: November 11, 3-5
Benicia Plein Air Gallery
307 First Street
Benicia, CA. 94510
Phone number: 707-297-5903
February 2018
Featured artist: Rolando Barerro
Reception: TBA
October 2018
Featured artist: Dixie Mohan
September 2018
Featured artist: Judy Feins
August 2017
Theme: Phil Joy's boatyard
Group Show
Reception: Sunday August 6, 3-5
Poetry readings at 4 pm
2nd Annual Plein Air Paint Out and Art Show
August 26, show and reception 3:30-6 pm
Art Music Food filling the street in front of the Gallery
Gringa playing from 4:15 to 6 pm www.gringamusic.com
January 2018
Featured Artist: Susan Street
Reception: TBA
December 2017
Group Show, Theme TBA
Reception: TBA
The Gallery will be open in the evening for the Benicia Tree Lighting till 8 pm.
Christmas cookies from 6-8!
Original mini paintings as Christmas tree ornaments available throughout the month of
December displayed on the Gallery Christmas Tree.
March 2018
Featured Artist: JoAnne McMahon
April 2018
Featured artist: Catherine Fasciato
Stephen Berry is teaching a 2 day workshop. July 24 and 25 - $200. Wet into Wet Clouds 9 am to 4 pm
Call Steve to register: 707-567-6817 or email cloudofwords@gmail.com
July 2018
Featured Artist Mary Lou Correia
August 2018
Group Show
July Featured Artist: Dixie Mohan. Join us at her reception during the Benicia Art Walk, Saturday, July 8, 4 to 6 pm.
“I am of a time when having one’s head in the cloud meant being in a space of dreaminess, ruminating far from the practical day to day world. For an artist, a cloud is a thing of beauty, a graceful floating ephemeral object where one’s imagination can take flight. A child asks what do you see? Is it a bird, a plane, a bunny or an elephant with wings ? The scientist looks in the cloud and thinks a front is coming in, a change in the weather, thunder showers, cumulous, stratus, or cirrus. Today, the cloud is a platform for the virtual world. On a trip to Cuba last year, I met an artist named Kelvin Lopez, who had a cloud painting in his studio. I thought of what his painting may mean — his cloud was a place where freedom of thought and creative expression found a connection in a very different world than mine. I found inspiration for my paintings in his work."
Dixie Mohan has a BA in art from UC Berkeley. She has studied painting at Fremantle Art Center, Australia, and in workshops and classes around the bay. The focus of Mohan’s work is the landscape, water and light of northern California. She is a founding member of Benicia Plein Air Gallery.
Mohan’s work will be featured in the gallery during the Benicia Art Walk, Saturday, July 8, 2 to 6 pm. Free food, drink, music and fun. Visit all the First Street Galleries and win a chance at a Gift certificate to be used at any one of the participating galleries.
2016 participants
