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Arts & Entertainment

Painting 'en Plein Air'

Artists will auction off spontaneous paintings of Greenport scenery, created in the open air, for the 21st annual Maritime Festival this weekend.

For artist Alan Bull, painting on a canvas in the open air — or "en plein air," as the French would say — is a challenging breath of fresh air compared to the experience of painting in an enclosed studio.

"It's always a challenge to start and finish a painting in one session, because you're dealing with a lot of variables — wind, rain, people, changing light," said Bull, a painter with deep ties to the North Fork currently living in Newburyport, Mass. who was one of the participants in last year's Plein Air painting session at the Greenport Maritime Festival.

But at the same time, Bull added, "the plein air events create a sense of competition and camaraderie. We're all rooting for each other but each of us hopes that we can produce a painting that will stand against others."

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Artists Carol Young, a resident of Fairfield, Conn. who has a home in Jamesport, and Marla Milne, a Greenport resident, will paint the iconic scenery of Greenport in the open air of Mitchell Park and on Main Street near the docks for this year's Maritime Festival. Painters will be on site Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., then on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This is the first year for Young and Milne at the Plein Air event, where they are prepared to interact with large groups of people and expose their work to new viewers. Neither Young nor Milne is a stranger to painting "en plein air," a style made popular by French Impressionist painters such as Auguste ReniorClaude Monet and Paul Cezanne in the mid-1800s.

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"You have to get in the zone and focus because there will be watchers and passersby talking to you," said Young, who prefers the quick-drying acrylic paints in the open air. "You have to be open." 

Milne said she likes to work outdoors with watercolor because of "the portability (of the materials) and sense of spontaneity it brings" to her work. Slow-drying oil-based paint is the preferred outdoor material for Alan Bull and Doug Reina, a Greenport resident who also participated last year.

Whatever the medium, the resulting work from the artists will be sold to the highest bidder during a silent auction on Saturday, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mitchell Park. Bull and Reina, who won't be able to make it to the festival this year, plan to donate recently painted plein air canvases of Greenport to the auction. All proceeds will go to Greenport's East End Seaport Museum and Maritime Foundation.

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