En Plein air

(noun)

En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors, which is also called peinture sur le motif ("painting on the ground") in French.

Related Terms

Examples of En Plein air in the following topics:

  • Impressionism

    • The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air.
    • Sisley was dedicated to painting landscape en plein air and his work is known for capturing the transient effects of sunlight.

  • Europe and America from 1850–1900

    • The Impressionists argued that people do not see objects but only the light which they reflect, and therefore painters should paint in natural light (en plein air) rather than in studios and should capture the effects of light in their work .

  • German Painting in the Northern Renaissance

    • Likely the first landscape painter in Early Modern Europe, Dürer honed his landscape painting skills working en plein air at home and during his travels.

  • Em-Dashes and En-Dashes

    • En dashes generally have a space before and after the dash. 
    • In some situations, either an em dash or an en dash is appropriate.
    • (en dashes)
    • En dashes should be used to demonstrate definite ranges of values.
    • In these cases, using an en dash is distracting.

  • Post-Impressionism

    • Camille Pissarro briefly painted in a pointillist manner, and even Monet abandoned strict plein air painting.

  • Convection

    • The air in a typical house is completely replaced in less than an hour.
    • Strategy Heat is used to raise the temperature of air so that Q=mcΔT.
    • The term used for the process by which outside air leaks into the house from cracks around windows, doors, and the foundation is called "air infiltration."
    • Heat from the skin is required in order for sweat to evaporate from the skin, but without air flow the air becomes saturated and evaporation stops.
    • Air flow caused by convection replaces the saturated air by dry air and thus evaporation continues.

  • Landscape Painting in the Romantic Period

    • Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frédéric Bazille among others, practiced plein air painting and developed what would later be called Impressionism, an extremely influential movement.

  • Colonial Australian Art

    • They began an impressionistic plein air approach to the Australian landscape that remains embedded in Australia's popular consciousness, both in and outside the art world.

  • MacArthur's Leapfrogging

    • MacArthur's air forces countered in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (March 2-5, 1943).
    • The disastrous losses suffered by the Japanese prompted Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to initiate I Go (Operation 'I'), a series of air attacks against Allied airfields and shipping at both Guadalcanal and New Guinea, which ultimately resulted in Yamamoto's death.
    • The Joint Chiefs responded with a directive that approved the plan using forces already in the theater or en route to it, and delaying its implementation by 60 days.
    • For this, he was awarded the Air Medal.

  • Using information technology competitively

    • When they enroll in the program, air travelers are awarded "miles" for every flight they take on, for example, British Airways.