Door County Art – Plein Air Painting

Plein air painting is a “weather-permitting” event according to Jim Leatham, who organized the Door County Art League’s (DCAL) weekly plein air painting events three years ago. This theory certainly applied Wednesday morning, July 2, when rain fell from the sky.

As the clouds began to part, I headed north to Newport State Park and gazed over the location where the painting would have taken place. Brief bits of warm light struck the narrow strip of sand, dark with moisture, almost overcome by tall grasses. Tall pine trees stood like walls against the silver blue water.

If the painters had arrived, thirty participants in all, I image they would have been scattered about the shore line – some sitting on plastic lawn chairs, crouching over canvases, others standing with portable easels upright, their materials resting on overturned laundry baskets or wooden stools – watercolorists, oil painters, and pastel artists alike.

Because I did not witness the painters create an image from the land before them, Jim Leatham invited me to his studio and gallery, a log cabin guarded by an enormous dog.

Leatham’s garage and the above studio are lined with plein air paintings, Door County locations he identifies easily, “This is Ephraim; this is a field off Settlement Road; this is the Sturgeon Bay Marina; and here is a sunset off Fish Creek.”

Leatham gestures towards a map of the peninsula marked with all the painting locations. He flips through a photo album displaying all the venues and the end-product paintings. I am intrigued by the accuracy and artistry that is evident when Leatham shows me a photograph of a lighthouse and the painting that resulted.

However, witnessing the real, authentic creation, the painters conjuring up the water, the trees, and shoreline before them may have been something spectacular to witness – something like watching a musician create a sensation with notes or a writer create a landscape with words, except it is especially tangible – an experience anyone can witness or attempt.

The DCAL plein air painters will be on location every Wednesday, all year long. If, by chance, weather permits, the painters meet at the designated location on the Friday of the same week. For more information and to view the plein air schedule, visit www. doorcountyartleague.org or call 920.854.4008.

Sally Slattery, a recent Winona State graduate, currently interns for the Peninsula Pulse Arts and Literature section. A visitor to the Door County area since she was a young girl, this season marks Slattery’s second to reside in the county.