An investors guide to finding quality plein air or alla prima artwork.

A consumers quick guide to finding exceptional investment quality Plein Air, Alla Prima, or outdoor paintings by finding the values that artist should have focused on.

In general artwork can be created outdoors or indoors in the studio. Both types of art are valuable, both are challenging, and both have an inherent quality to them. One of the main differences are that when painting outdoors it is of the utmost importance to rapidly capture the values in one sitting.

As a buyer of art, this is most easily understood by taking a picture of one of your hanging paintings that you love, know best, and understand the intimately. Be sure to take it with a digital camera but go into your cameras settings and choose the black and white or gray-scale setting before taking the image.

What you'll notice is that although the artwork lost its color you can instantly recognize it in full detail. The image that you took is stripped of all color notations. But, what remains are the values. In general art can be created with only value and temperature being correct and it will remain superb. Classic masters used this in their Dutch and Italian works by creating a grisaille of values and then glazing transparent colors over it. The luminosity was spectacular in their art pieces.

Many artists, even expressionist, spend an inordinate amount of time planning a composition before they dive into a plein-air painting. Even if it seems as if they chanced upon a scene while outdoors. This is often done by working out the composition quickly, but covering certain key items, such as value and temperature. Many artists will take about 5 minutes or less to use charcoal on a pre-oiled canvas. The benefit is that the charcoal can be wiped off easily as corrections and planning are underway. And that the charcoal becomes embedded into the oil painting pigments lending a wonderful mysterious window into the artistic process. This can be readily seen in Leonardo De Vinci's masterpieces. The large shapes are captured at this stage as well. The shapes are the first artistic expression utilized by the artist. This is where gesture is embedded into the structural skeleton of the painting to enhance what that particular artist sees and chooses to transmit to the viewer. Sometimes, an artist will spend a few minutes before this stage creating very tiny sketches, like 3 inches or so, which assists them in understanding how the painting will look from a great distance away and ensure that the viewer is drawn to the painting from across the room.

The artist will then begin to define the paintings shapes. At this stage the shapes are simply going to be a single value. Furthermore, the shapes can cross numerous objects within the artwork. This allows the artist to create new shapes from the shapes that the viewer already understands intuitively. It is this that can create dynamics within the artwork. To better clarify we all understand what a circle and square look like, but what happens to the shape when they are merged together by being next to each other with one in front and the other behind. There are all sorts of shapes that can be created by the merging. The artist can alter the shapes at will, and can force certain shapes to become dominant or subordinate to the others to assist the viewers eyes to roam the canvas in a certain manner. Hopefully, being surprised at each corner with something new and exciting. Each larger shape will retain a single value. Usually on a 10 value scale including the lightest being white and the darkest being black.

It is this pattern of new and mixed shapes that usually defines the loveliness or beauty of a scene. This is what a true artist deeply understands and strives to capture the newness of already well understood objects. It is this fine line that is danced in fine art. A still life with dead game or fowl mixed with vegetables may seem mundane, but the exceptional artist can grasp the newness of the patterns and present it in a wonderful and exciting manner. Hopefully, the values are perfectly placed to allow for many hours of pleasant viewing.

The experienced artist will seek to relate these patterns with the focal point of the painting. Which is where they choose to have the viewer look initially. There are numerous compositional tricks, but one of them is the area with the highest light and dark contrast. i.e. where the lightest and darkest values meet. Humans are programed to seek out these points naturally and the artist will exploit them as often as possible. There usually is only one of these in a painting, otherwise your eyes will zip back and forth between them. All other contrast points are not as strongly separated in value. A good scene will have this, or will be embellished by the artist to signify the item they want you to seek out first.

The painter will also ensure that all the sizes, shapes, and outside lines are not the same. Sameness will create a boring painting. The more variety while sharing some similarities across the whole painting create a dynamic and unified artwork. The artist will also add some mood the painting by making most of the shapes values be in one general vicinity. So most of them can be all in the dark range, or in the light range to ensure a unified mood across the art.

Now look back at your cameras picture to look for all these things in your hanging painting. If it is hard to see these things then squint a little to blur the edges and you will see value shapes begin to merge into the things that your mind already pieces together on the canvas. Look for the highest contrast point, is it in a compositional center (see last article by one of Exclusive Canvas Art's artists on composition)? What is the tensioned mood of the painting. Is it light and airy or dark and moody. Perhaps its somber with a hint of evil darkness creeping in one corner.

If the artist was looking for a painting that had stability and balance they would place the focal points (those contrast areas) at the intersections of a tic tac to board. Or for some tension they would move it off one of these spots (See Purple Sunset Impressionism by M. Zimmerman for a tranquil and balanced painting.) Of course the artist will be sure to not have any areas compete for the focal area by placing the correct values all around the painting.

When looking to purchase a painting that was done in one quick sitting, regardless of it was painted outdoors or in a studio, be sure to see if the mood matches the shapes, and that the values are new and exciting. If the shapes and values seem to all be mashed together or have huge leaps from one area to the next then move onward. If on the other hand, the artwork has a good delineation from value to value and a general vicinity of values enhancing mood, while creating new complex and exciting pattern shapes while still working with a well know object then you may begin to look for the colors and other buyers guides Exclusive Canvas Art has written to help the investment consumer of art find those artwork paintings that will translate to a higher selling price than a purchasing price.

Feel free to consult with one of our exceptional agents by email or phone when choosing between many of our available artworks. They will help guide you to purchase the artwork that both fits within these compositional investment rules and within your personal taste in fine art.

Consultant@ExclusiveCanvasArt.com (770) 4066-ART