Plein

Plein, or Plein air painting, is a method of painting in an outdoor setting. This type of painting is based on what the eye actually sees outdoors, where a painter reproduces the exact visual condition he saw at that moment. Painting outdoors like this was is very tricky since the sky color and natural lighting is constantly changing outside and you have to really capture the moment perfectly to get the exact image on paper.

Many famous painters tried this technique; one such painter was Monet, when he painted //Water Lillies//. Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century, working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school, Hudson River School, and Impressionists. The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1840s with the introduction of paints in tubes (like for toothpaste) so the paint would not all dry out before you can paint the canvas. Previously, painters made their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil. The act of outdoor painting has survived throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. French impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir used the technique of plein air painting, and much of their work was done outdoors in the diffuse light of a large white umbrella.

Just like his famous water lilies, Monet also painted several haystacks, in different lighting, different seasons, and different weather. He took an approach that many artists would have passed by just because he was most interested in the view, the way the light shone on it at a certain time. That's what Plein is all about, capturing a perfect image of what you see at a certain time with the right shadows and gleams of light and colors in the right places. Plein is important to France because it is an amazing way of painting that makes it seem more real like a photograph. It allows you to capture the exact image you see at anytime and without this way of painting, paintings like the series of //Water Lillies// would not be as beautiful and important as they are today. Good thing someone thought of paint in a tube.