From Portraits to Plein Air with Chris Kolupski

Philip Carlton talks purpose, inspiration, and marketing woes with Tim and Marie.  We recorded this compelling interview several months ago, but we weren't able to release it when we shifted our staff energy to redesigning our foundation website. Our apologies for the delayed release, but we hope you enjoy. Philip Alexander Carlton is a self taught plein air painter who takes delight in the endless challenge of observational painting. Although his foray into outdoor painting began in the urban Midwest, his travels and artistic passion for scale and atmosphere left him enamored with the western states. He currently resides and paints most often in the desert canyons of Fruita, Colorado. His artistic philosophy centers on the belief that painting is just as much about process as it is about product. Consequently, all of his work is started and finished on location, often over multiple days as light and conditions necessitate. For Philip, painting “en plein air” is its own form of expression and is not just a stepping stone towards creating larger works or a means by which to study an environment; creation in nature is at the core of his artistic practice.  Although his chosen subject matter may change with the season and his visual style continues to evolve, it still carries with it the same soul of his early plein air work: his paintings have always served as a visual journal of his life and travels, and as such tell a story which can vary wildly between both the classically grand and the uncomfortably gritty locales that he explores. Follow Philip Carlton: Official Site Facebook Instagram Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

Bernie Dellario come into the studio to speak with Tim and Marie.  He talks about his painting trip to Italy that caused him to miss an early Plein Air Easton event, his approach to teaching, and gives Tim and Marie a little demo on how to mix paint. “From the beautiful to the discarded, I am inspired by many things as an artist.  I rarely know what will be the subject of my painting efforts, but once discovered, I strive to articulate my impression of that reality into a collection of abstract shapes, strong design and color” Bernard Dellario earned a bachelor's degree from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, PA with emphasis on finance and art history.  He studied Art at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia and attended several workshops with nationally known artists.  He has been a member of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters since 2003. Fondly known as WSLP, one of the oldest active artist organizations in the Washington area, Bernard currently serves as President. He teaches painting classes through several venues, has won national awards and exhibits throughout the Maryland Eastern Shore and Washington, DC regions. Follow Bernie Dellario: Official Site Facebook Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.  

In an incredibly brave and vulnerable interview, artist Tim Beall discusses the inner battles he endures as he pursues his art.  Growing up in an environment that he describes as being synonymous with "toxic masculinity", Beall speaks to the struggle to acknowledge his drive to be creative that brought him from athlete to artist. Tim Bell began serious painting study with the well-known portrait painter Cedric Egeli in 1994 and assisted Cedric in teaching color painting at the Cape Cod School of Art. Tim studied briefly with Maryland Impressionist John Ebersberger, who introduced him to George T. Thurmond. It was Thurmond, a devoted student of the late Henry Hensche, who Tim credits with having taught him the principles of the Hensche method of painting. A painting trip to Scotland in year 2006 was a significant turning point in Tim’s methods and style of painting.  It brought new ideas and a fresh vision as he added tonalist color theory to his palette.  Painting trips in following summers to Cape Cod, Gloucester, and Monhegan Island cemented these color theories and a painting friendship with Robert Gruppe. Tim uses oils and a combination of palette knives and brushes on canvas to create his paintings that are a tribute to the rich artistic heritage of American plein air painting. For a period of time Tim had the unique experience of working on a fishing boat on the Chesapeake Bay.  It was this experience that gave him an appreciation of the majesty and unique history of oyster boats under sail.  The Chesapeake Bay, the skipjacks, bugeyes and schooners that ply its waters are some of his favorite painting subjects. He also enjoys frequent painting trips to New England, Scotland and Italy. Tim’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He is an active participant in plein air painting competitions and is a sought-after instructor for his oil painting workshops. His paintings hang in private collections throughout the United States and Great Britain and are also included in the collection of Frostburg State University. In 2004 Tim was honored to be juried into the "Sunlight and Shadow" exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. In the 2006 Paint Easton plein air painting competition, Tim Bell won the Grand Prize for his oil painting of skipjacks on the Chesapeake Bay. He has won many awards since then, including the 2009 Plein Air Easton Artists Choice Award and the Best Marine painting. Follow Tim Beall: Instagram Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear.

Thoughtful and friendly, Christine Lashley shares with Tim and Marie her journey as an artist and her approach to her art that is very introspective and optimistic.  While the conversation never closes the loop on being chased by a bear, we do discover the surprising poignancy of her first painting of a rooster. Christine is an American artist known for her colorful and dramatic oils. Christine has been involved in the arts all her life, with early years sketching outdoors and watching her mother and grandmother create sculpture. She spent several years in the high fashion world of Europe, and then worked in graphic design and creating murals. She began painting professionally with watercolors but moved to oils in 2009. Most of Christine's art ideas are gathered by painting outdoors (plein air). The beauty of a moment held in memory and fusing reality and the abstract are key elements of her style. With a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and prior study at the Sorbonne and Parsons in Paris, Christine continued her art education with workshops from prominent artists. Her awards include Best of Show at: Plein Air Telluride, Bath County, and En Plein Air Texas. Other awards include the Bold Brush Award, ARC salon, Plein Air Salon Top 5 Annual Finalist, and numerous Oil Painter's of America (OPA) awards. Publications include the cover of Plein Air Magazine. She has taught workshops and classes for over 25 years. Follow Christine Lashley: Official Site Facebook Instagram Pinterest Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.  

May Klisch made her Plein Air Easton debut this year and won the judge's choice award for her work "The Font of American Farmers".  Tim and Jess talk with May about how she failed art in high school, her gratitude for those that helped her rediscover the artist in her, and craft beer. Someone once remarked of my work: “I see why there is as much breadth as there is depth; as much whimsy as weight; as much energy as tranquility. Her work reflects her, her facets, passions, and life’s journey.” The movement and growth in my work are time bridges; each phase is at once new, and old, and forever…like the stories we collect, but that also collect us. I am a Singapore-born Midwestern American artist working with a variety of media exploring contemporary art expression. Follow May Klisch: Official Site Facebook Instagram Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear.  

Despite being a relative new-comer to plein air painting, Mick McAndrews won 3rd place at the 2022 Plein Air Easton festival with his piece "Good Morning Oxford".  After having technical difficulties during our first interview with Mick, Tim and Jess sat down with him again and this time discuss identifying as a "capital A, Artist", why Mick loves watercolor, and golf as a metaphor for painting. "I am a passionate painter who believes that time spent painting is precious. My goal is to draw and paint every day and I believe that the fastest way to artistic growth is through the activity of painting. I  enjoy painting outside to take advantage of surroundings, natural light, and the sights and sounds that influence each painter's creative nature. Outside in nature’s studio is where I find the greatest challenge and the greatest reward. I am challenged to capture the moment because light and its effect, reflection and cast shadow changes continuously. I am forced to simplify, to reduce the overwhelming complexity of what’s in front of me into only the most important shapes and values. My nature is to be spontaneous so working loose and impressionistically appeals to me. The magic of watercolor is found in the partnership between artist and medium, of finding a balance between the knowledge, technique and skill of the painter while leaving room for the magic that makes watercolor so distinctive." Follow Mick McAndrews: Official Site Facebook Instagram Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

First time Plein Air Easton juried artist Marilyn Rose sold very well in 2022 and joins Tim and Marie to discuss her experience.  Through that conversation, they debate what qualifies as "art", how she returned to art after a career in graphic design, and the careers of the OTHER Marilyn Rose's in the country. Marilyn Rose, a NJ resident, is a signature member of the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, the Northeast Watercolor Society, New Jersey Watercolor Society, Garden State Watercolor Club and the Baltimore Watercolor Society. Her paintings have won numerous awards in statewide and national exhibitions and have been juried into numerous shows and plein air competitions. Her paintings are in private and corporate collections across the U.S. and Canada and her illustrations have appeared in national magazines. She teaches at the various locations, including her home studio and Art School at the Old Church in Demarest, NJ, runs a plein air workshop each summer at the Landgrove Inn in Vermont.  In 2013, Marilyn was selected to be an artist in residence in Bryant Park in NYC and continues to run workshops there as well.  While her paintings take the natural world around her as their subject matter, they are really about edges; the places where things meet: paint and paper, light and shadow, pigment and water, reality and abstraction. They document an inner journey and an outer journey simultaneously. Marilyn’s work takes a traditional medium, and pushes its boundaries, with a boldness and exuberance, which she invites the viewer to share. Follow Marilyn Rose: Official Site Facebook Instagram Vimeo Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear.

It's been a few months since this year's festival concluded and the team has had a chance to breathe and reflect on what all went down.  Tim, Marie, and Jess chat about all of the festivities and how the changes in the economy can impact the arts.  Whether or not you were able to attend the festival in person, this conversation provides an insider look at how the competition operates and how adjustments and changes are made from year to year. Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at [email protected]. Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

LIVE from Plein Air Easton 2022, Tim and Jess talk with alumni artist Robert J Simone. Robert discusses professional art organizations, his love for boats, and how he found himself returning to his love of art. Simone derives inspiration from coastal scenery and marine subjects.  He loves color and the natural harmonies that surround us.  He's also fascinated by the many ways humans give shape, form and function to the world's raw materials.  That's what draws him to the maritime, transportation and industrial subjects he paints so well.  But his first love is the coastal landscape of West Central Florida. Follow Robert J Simone: Official Site Facebook Instagram Twitter Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos 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 & Scott Gratton.

LIVE from Plein Air Easton 2022, Tim and Jess talk with alumni artist Georganna Lenssen. This fascinating dive into Georganna's career covers her work painting African dogs, cardboard cakes, and her pen pals in prison (something her grandmother inspired her to do).   "My work is the culmination of response, absorption and interpretation of place or content. A thread of commonality exists—from exquisitely patterned African wild dogs to densely sensual frosted cakes to the evocative nature of abandoned structures and the secrets within—the multi-faceted richness of imagery. Opacities, transparencies and iridescences offer a myriad of painterly opportunities. Here is where instinct, memory and sensation merge for me, creating a visual language of mark-making, color interaction and finally the landscape of the painted surface." Follow Georganna Lenssen: Official Site Facebook Instagram Follow Plein Air Easton: Official Site Facebook Instagram YouTube Instructional Videos 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 & Podington Bear.