A Short Fenske Plein Air Video

Below is a short video of fellow plein air painter Ben Fenske painting a quick (2 hour?) oil sketch of the road to the farmhouse where I’ve lived in the summers for the last few years.

I filmed the plein air video a couple of years ago and found the footage today while organizing old files on my computer. A couple of people have written to me asking about Ben’s technique, so here it is in all it’s badly-color-graded glory.

Update: Some people were having problems watching the video, so I uploaded a new version.

Castiglione del Bosco


I just got back from two weeks of plein air painting on one of the more beautiful estates in Italy. We were put up by a friend who asked me to invite excellent landscape painters from around the world for something of a symposium of painting. We had a good turn out: Ben Fenske, Jory Glazener, Joeseph McGurl, Edward Minoff, Rick Piloco and myself were the core group. Charles Cecil, Daniela Astone, and Mathilde van der Does de Willebois and Fiona Corsini came for shorter stays.

Here are some random photos from the trip.

We had perfect weather, great food and wine, excellent company, and it was one of the best seasons to paint in one of the more beautiful areas of the world. A resounding success all around.

Years ago I drove through the same valley where we stayed and always wanted to go back and paint there, so it was great to be offered this occasion in that exact spot.

Joseph McGurl is probably the contemporary landscape painter who had the most influence on my own work. I saw a show of his in New York when I was just starting out and it really made me see what was possible with landscape painting. It was great to be able to paint with him after all these years.

I’ll post photos of my paintings when I have a chance.