46
WBM september 2012
The tradition of
painting land-scapes
en plein
air is one of the
most enduring
approaches to the
art form. Creating
artwork en plein
air translates from
its French origin to
mean in the open air —
the artist is literally working out-doors,
painting the scene on location.
So can one be an en plein air
painter if he paints indoors, inside
his studio?
By definition, no. But Jacksonville,
Florida artist C. Ford Riley believes
so, with the important caveat that, as
the artist, you, “Paint what you know.
Know your subject.” This approach
would require intimate, living knowl-edge
of what you are painting, and
Ford says, “I paint only the things I’m
familiar with. If I can’t smell it or feel
it, I can’t conceivably paint it. When
you know your subject,” he says,
“painting direct to canvas is the same
thing.”
Ford Riley paints highly devel-oped,
richly detailed pieces, primarily
in oil on canvas. His first body of
work was of vignettes showing native
southeastern birds (still his favorite
subject) with a hint of their habitat’s
foliage, perhaps a single branch with
a few leaves. These evolved as he
became more interested in rendering
the full habitat of his birds, paint-ing
corner-to-corner, he says, then
focusing eventually on the habitat’s
details. The resulting lush landscape
paintings mirror his reverence for the
realistic and pastoral landscapes of the
Hudson River School of painters, a
mid-19th century art movement. As
in these paintings, Ford’s connection
to nature is illustrated.