Plein air painting—creating art outdoors, in direct sunlight and shadow—brings to mind Monet's haystacks or Renoir's sun-dappled picnic scenes. Now fast-forward from the 19th-century French Impressionists to 21st-century Borrego Springs, California, where for the past week, the 19th Annual Plein Air Invitational has transformed this artsy desert town on the western edge of the Sonoran Desert.
(Above: Plein Air 2024 1st Place Winner, "Arroyo Palo Verde" by Mark Kerckhoff.)
The mission: paint the landscape. One painting a day. Every day for a week. Then frame them, hang them in the Borrego Art Institute, and put them up for judgment and admiration.
My friend Larry Hemmerich, a pastel artist, invited me along to watch the process. Each morning at dawn, the 16 invited artists emerge from tents and hotel rooms, scattering across the landscape. Some set up just outside town, capturing cacti and palm trees; others venture into the wild, bouncing down dirt roads in four-wheel drives in search of snow-capped peaks, dry arroyos, or gnarled cacti bathed in golden light. Soon, the desert is dotted with easels, palettes in hand, sun hats flopping in the wind.
Yesterday, Larry set out in his Honda Passport to find Palm Slot—a narrow, winding canyon sculpted by wind and rain over millennia. Twenty miles out of town, we veered off the highway onto a rough dirt road, bouncing along until we reached our destination. The wind was fierce, but Larry found a spot with a perfect view of the canyon, where a natural stone arch stretched dramatically from wall to wall, etched in sunlight and shadow.
While Larry worked his pastels, I stretched out on a blanket in the sand, dozing in the shifting warmth of the sun. Hours passed as he layered color onto paper, stepping back occasionally to assess his work against the towering rock formations. Then, finally, he declared it finished.
Back at the Art Institute, he framed his painting and added it to the growing exhibit. We wandered through the gallery, admiring pieces by watercolorists Jason Li and Richie Vios, fellow pastel artist Natalie Richards, and oil painters Jim Wodark and Patty McGeeney, among others.
Then, as night fell and the winds picked up again, the artists turned in—ready to do it all over again the next day.
