Saturday, April 11, 2026, 8:30 am - 1:00 pm - One-day Workshop 
Location: City Park Lagoon/ meet at Boat Launch 8:30 AM

(backup date for inclement weather is 4/18)

Field Sketching & Introduction to Plein Air Painting

Ever wanted to try "Plein Air Painting", well, bring your sketchbook and your paints and take this intro workshop! You will be learning about Plein air painting or the act of painting outside in the natural world. Plein Air has become very popular enticing studio and amateur artist to find enjoyment in this journey. Whether a professional or novice, this class will teach you time honored techniques and short-cuts learned by painting alongside prominent Chicago plein air artists. My primary medium is Oil, but you can apply these techniques to acrylic and to gouache (pastel, watercolor not recommended). Workshop will be held outside where you will practice these “Plein air fundamentals.”

Artistic Emphasis: I’ll be teaching a framework to achieve the best execution “en plein air”.

1. Composition — The unity of a painting, design, balance, movement, rhythm.

2. Craftsmanship — We’ll emphasize fundamentals of drawing, values, skill with the medium, paint handling, presentation.

3. Challenge — We’ll cover methods artists use to meet the challenges of painting outside. Special techniques to manage weather, fleeting light effects and wet on wet painting.

4. Color —Well experiment with color harmony, relationships, balance.

5. Perspective: I’ll emphasize the proper use of single and multiple perspectives where applicable

6. Compelling — Techniques we use to create irresistible visual impact, make the painting memorable and tell a story.

Concepts we’ll touch on:

• Use of Field sketching is a great exercise to help you observe nature more intentionally. You can also plan a painting – solve challenges for future work.

• Mindset: Relax and step outside your routine

• Equipment- emphasizing what you need to get started while avoiding a big dollar investment

• Creating a journey for the viewer: what is the story, who/what are the heroes lead the viewer (even if it’s you) -opt for less, remove obstacles, noise, never block the view

• Simplification: Choose image and frame it, make tough choices about what is necessary to tell your story. consider drawing a box on your sketchpad,

• Perspective: create 3-dimensional depth on flat surface. The farther an object is from the drawing plane, the smaller it is. Paths, walls, roads, structures align to a common point in the distance. Heads are all at the same horizontal.

• Value: how to represent distance using dark and light values and cool and warm palette.

• Design Principles: like the rule of 3rds and golden ratio- intuitive mathematical concepts used to portray an image

LEVEL

Beginning to Intermediate

SUPPLIES INSTRUCTOR WILL PROVIDE

Paper towels, Garbage Bag, 4 extra easels

SUPPLIES TO BRING

We’re going to have fun in this workshop! Bring your preferred brushes, paints or pastels.

Oil painters: I use

• Alizarin crimson
• Burnt sienna
• Burnt umber
• Cad yellow pale
• Cad red
• Ultramarine blue
• Indigo
• Permanent green
• Prussian green or a cool green
• Cad white

(I also like yellow ochre, French ultramarine for urban work)

• Brushes: include rounds, flat and filberts to liking #4-6

• Solvent in a small bottle such as Gamsol and a dryer such as Galkyd

• Paper towels

• Easel

• A small panel(s) up to 8x10

• PLUS, whatever you need for comfort! Stool, chair

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Mark B. Cleveland (American, Denver, CO.) is a contemporary award winning plein air inspired oil painter regularly spotted on Chicago’s and now Denver streets. He is known for his urban and natural landscapes as part of Plein Air Painters of Chicago and as founder of the Evanston Plein Air Festival. His work was juried into the Plein Air Salon Top 100 sponsored by Plein Air Magazine in May 2024. www.Markclevelandart.com

QUESTIONS

Please direct questions to Mark Cleveland at mark.cleveland@comcast.net.