In this episode, Eric Rhoads interviews artist Aimee Erickson, who shares her journey, including painting in Florence, riding a bicycle across America, and more.
Listen as they discuss:
– The personal growth and freedom Aimee experienced on her bicycle trip
– Challenges and joys of plein air painting, and the importance of managing expectations for beginners
– What it was like to paint inside the Portland Museum of Art during the Monet to Matisse exhibition
– Interesting interactions with the public when painting on location
– Composition, the limitations of rules, and simplifying the process of painting
– And much more!
Bonus! What are some ways for artists to effectively use social media? How do you get more eyeballs on your Instagram posts that will lead to serious potential buyers?
Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast.
Listen to the Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads and Aimee Erickson here:
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Related Links:
– Aimee Erickson online: https://www.aimeeerickson.com/
– Pastel Live: https://pastellive.com/psl2024
– Realism Live: https://realismlive.com/
– PleinAir® Magazine: https://pleinairmagazine.com/
– Plein Air Convention & Expo: https://pleinairconvention.com/
– Publisher’s Invitational: https://publishersinvitational.com/
FULL TRANSCRIPT of this Plein Air Podcast
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Plein Air Podcast. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.
Announcer:
This is the Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads, publisher and founder of Plein Air Magazine. In the Plein Air Podcast, we cover the world of outdoor painting called plein air. The French coined the term which means open air or outdoors. The French pronounce it plenn air. Others say plein air. No matter how you say it. There is a huge movement of artists around the world who are going outdoors to paint and this show is about that movement. Now, here’s your host, author, publisher, and painter, Eric Rhoads.
Eric Rhoads
Welcome to the plein air podcast. I I can’t believe that it’s fall already and it’s just like this year has just gone by lickety split. It’s like one minute it was January. Now, all of a sudden it’s the fourth quarter. It’s just insane how quickly time is going. I had a little bit of time to paint this summer, but not as much as I wanted. I started out this summer with my Adirondack retreat, and that was in June. And then, you know, I had some visitors. I got out painting a little bit, but certainly not as much as I ever wanted to. And that’s why I like these events where you can just kind of go in and paint and and be consumed by it. I’m going to be going to the Laguna Invitational, LPAPA Invitational. That’s the first time I’ve been since, well, I guess first time I’ve been in 20 years. And then I got fall color week coming up, and I’m going to be painting there. So just a little bit of painting happening. I’m in my studio in the Adirondacks at the moment, and it’s starting to get cold and dreary, and the leaves are changing. It’s absolutely beautiful. It is beautiful, even though cold and dreary. It’s actually sunny now. And so, you know, I’ll be here just a little bit longer, but trying to get out and get into my boat and paint a couple more times, so that would be fun. I’m really grateful for you guys of making this show a success without you sharing it, without you listening to it and giving positive reviews, leaving comments, you know, we would be nowhere. So thank you for that. We appreciate it. The end of the podcast, we will do the art marketing minute, and that’s designed to help you with your art marketing, we also do art marketing Mondays now on my YouTube show, which is called Art School live and so there’s art marketing, a lot of art marketing. Art marketing, yeah, if you want to tell us who you want to have as guests, or you want to give a comment, just email me. [email protected], coming up. There’s so much stuff coming up. Realism live is something I’m pretty excited about. It is our online event. It is one of many. This one is focused on realism. Of course, there are many forms of realism. Realism meaning, if you can tell what it is, it’s realistic. If it’s experimental or abstract, it’s typically, there is abstract within realism. But anyway, you know, for instance, impressionism is realism, but so is tight, academic work. And so we have a three day event, which is, and there’s, by the way, there’s an optional fourth day, essential techniques day for reminder, refresher, beginner, etc, and that contains all art demonstrations, and we have some of the world’s leading artists who are going to be talking about figures and portraits and landscapes and still life And a lot of different mediums, whether it’s oil, watercolor, pastel, gouache, etc. Got a little bit of everything in there. Couple of couple of round tables. It’s really terrific little art history. It’s a good thing, and it’s immersion. Remember, I talked about the idea of just jump, jumping in and being immersed in something. You know, a lot of us are trying to up our game and get better, and yet we’re not going through the steps that we need to go through. We just keep painting, hoping we’re going to get better by experience alone. But when you study with the Masters, some of the greatest artists in the world, and we literally have people teaching from all over the world, then what. Is by immersing yourself in it for three four days, you all of a sudden start understanding concepts through repetition. Everybody has different ways and different approaches to it, and it’s a really great way to up your game. And of course, you have to take the time. And so you can take the time off, or you can take the time and watch the replays, because there it does come with replays anyway. That’s coming up. It’s called realism live, and you can learn more about it at realismlive.com we are so excited. One of the things I failed to mention is when I go out to California for fall color week, I’m also going to go after fall color week, I’m going up to Lake Tahoe and Reno, and I’m going to be meeting with some local artists up there, and that’s when we pick our painting locations. And there’s so many beautiful locations on the lake with the mountains, and you know, it’s going to be a beautiful time of year, springtime. And so the plein air convention is coming up in Lake Tahoe and Reno. And that’s coming up. Let’s see. What is that? I don’t know what the date, so the 19th through the 23rd of May. And so it’s going to be our 11th or 12th, I think our 12th convention. And it’s a ball. You know, there’s five stages. We have stages for oil pastel, watercolor, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And top painters, we’ve got about 80 instructors. We also have people to work with you in the field. We call them field painters. And the idea is just to go there to get better, to paint with friends. And it’s kind of like Thanksgiving for artists. It’s like when the family gets together for plein air, and you get to know people. You make friends. I was Mark Feldman was visiting me the other day, and he said, You know, I’ve been to every single one, and I was so honored and to know and I said, Why do you go back? He said, I go back because I get to see my friends, and I get to up my game. I get to learn new things. And so I think that’s a beautiful thing. Anyway, we are already, like 60 65% sold out. It’s hard to believe it’s so far out, but get your ticket. It’s going to be great pleinairconvention.com. And then, of course, if you have not yet subscribed to plein air magazine, we would love it if you would give it a shot. If you’re into plein air, whether you’re a collector, whether you’re an artist, plein air magazine is kind of the it place to be in terms of watching what’s going on in plein air world and getting to see great artist feature features people like Aimee Erickson, who you’re going to meet in a minute. And so this is a great thing. Just subscribe at pleinairmagazine.com now coming up after the interview with Aimee, I’m going to answer your art marketing questions in the marketing minute. You can send me your questions, [email protected] and you can also come on live if you want to. We just, we have to arrange that. Okay. Okay. So my guest is Aimee Erickson. Aimee is a complete rock star. She is such a good painter. She is known for her engaging style, her versatility and her subject matter. She’s internationally renowned as an oil painter and instructor. She’s given lectures all over demos at great venues worldwide. And she lives in Portland, Oregon, and she always carries a sketchbook. And she’s also got a new book out. I don’t know how new it is, we’re going to find it Aimee. Welcome to the plein air podcast.
Aimee Erickson
Hi Eric. Thank you for having me.
Eric Rhoads
So tell me how recent is this book? Because I get things confused.
Aimee Erickson
Let’s see. It’s been, it’s, it’ll be two years next April. So it’s been out about a year and a half.
Eric Rhoads
It is one of the best.
Aimee Erickson
Thank you.
Eric Rhoads
I don’t want to be the program that’s the idea is to shill a book, but I am going to shill this book because if, if you’re a plein air painter, this just kind of puts everything together for you. You want to just tell me quickly about the book and what your goal was.
Aimee Erickson
My goal was to share the things that are the most important to me in painting and within the context of plein air painting. So I organize the chapters by different types of light. So once we get through, you know, materials and then some composition, design and color. Then every chapter is a different kind of lighting,
Eric Rhoads
cool. Well, the name of the book, tell us the name of the book so that we know what to look for.
Aimee Erickson
It’s called plein air, techniques for artists. And another thing that I am really proud of regarding this book is how many artists have contributed work to it. I have about 50 contributing artists.
Eric Rhoads
I thought that was really remarkable, because usually if there’s a book, it’s all the paint. Are done by the artist, and you gave examples, if you were trying to make a point about somebody who did, let’s say, edges, then you showed examples of other people’s work talking about edges,
Aimee Erickson
because when it when I’m thinking about a certain topic, often someone will come to mind who really nails that aspect of painting. And so I wanted their work in it.
Eric Rhoads
How did this whole painting thing come about for you? Aimee, have you always been an artist, always been interested in art.
Aimee Erickson
Yeah, I started oil painting when I was six.
Eric Rhoads
Really oil painting at six, I know.
Aimee Erickson
I know. So oil my my mom was just really up for anything in in fact, your that beautiful introductory montage for the podcast, and that music reminded me of my years in Youth Symphony, playing the cello, really, yeah, she would just sign us up for stuff, me and all my siblings, gymnastics, ballet, various music classes, and, you know, like she bought me a unicycle because I was, I wanted, got this idea with that. I wanted to learn how to ride a unicycle. I was also six at that point.
Eric Rhoads
Well, the question is, can you oil paint from a unicycle?
Aimee Erickson
Yeah, no, but I can juggle on the unicycle.
Eric Rhoads
Oh, wow, that’s impressive.
Aimee Erickson
I haven’t tried oil painting on the unicycle. I’ve seen James Gurney do it, though.
Eric Rhoads
well, the fact that you’re a juggler, we have that in common, so we’ll have to juggle together. Good. Can you pass? I can pass, but it’s been a while. It’s been a while. It really depends on the gravity. Because, like, I’m going to see you in California and Laguna, and I think the gravity is a little worse in California, so I might drop a few more balls.
Aimee Erickson
Yes, at sea level, the gravity is a bit stronger. You’ll weigh a little bit more too.
Eric Rhoads
So you started oil painting at six. When did you start going outside?
Aimee Erickson
That is a good question. I remember that when I signed up for a plein air painting workshop in Florence in 2003 as part of my midlife crisis that I when I it was when I took six months off and rode my bicycle across America, and then I went to the Art Students League for a month, and then I went to Italy for a month.
Eric Rhoads
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we’re gonna, we’re just gonna rewind you rode your bicycle across America. I did tell me about that. What was this designed to get away from something? Were you escaping your feelings or something? What was going on?
Aimee Erickson
It was designed as an escape, but in a in but the aim was to find my feelings, because I knew I didn’t know completely who I was. I knew what I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to do, and I knew what all the organizations around me wanted from me, so I wanted to extricate myself from the trappings of my life and just see who I was on my own.
Eric Rhoads
What did you learn?
Unknown Speaker
I learned that there. I learned,
Eric Rhoads
should I not ask that question? Do you need an escape at this point?
Aimee Erickson
No, I mean, it’s just, it’s so much, it’s just not very verbal. I learned how to come home to myself. I learned how to let go of things that didn’t really matter to me.
Eric Rhoads
can you give examples of the type of things that you let go of?
Aimee Erickson
Yes, I had been active in religion up to that point, and I no longer was from that point forward.
Eric Rhoads
Okay, anything else
Aimee Erickson
I felt freedom and a centeredness that I’d never really had,
Eric Rhoads
and was this because you had so much alone time with yourself, you’re riding a bicycle, I assume not on major highways.
Aimee Erickson
Well, you’d be surprised, like the route is marked, and they put you on secondary roads as much as possible. Back Roads. Is the company that marks these bicycling routes across America and but there are places where there are no secondary roads and you ride on the interstate, not very many, but there are also lots of places where even the secondary roads are narrow and have no shoulder. So in terms of danger, it’s not it’s not entirely safe, like you’re with traffic quite a bit of the time.
Eric Rhoads
And were you by yourself, or were you with others who were on a similar track?
Aimee Erickson
I was with others who were on a similar track. I had never done anything like that before. The longest ride I had done before that was Seattle to Portland, which is 200 miles, and we did it in two days. So I think don’t quote me on that. I’m bad with numbers,
Eric Rhoads
and you probably didn’t have room to take the paints with you.
Aimee Erickson
No, I definitely did. I took my watercolors and my sketchbook, so I have two sketchbooks from that trip, and I would just stop on the side of the road, pull my sketchbook out of my handlebar bag, put a little bit of my drinking water in my watercolors, and sketch standing up on my bike
Eric Rhoads
That sounds like there’s a another book. Just to do a book on that sketchbook.
Aimee Erickson
Maybe it was. It was definitely important to me. I don’t know how, how much of it mean to everybody else, but
Eric Rhoads
I think it’s fabulous. Somebody did a book about their trek across, across Spain, and they stopped and painted. I can’t remember who it was. I apologize. They stopped and painted every two hours, or every four hours or something. And it took several months. And then they did a book of it. And I thought, you know, that’s pretty cool. I think, I think people would love to see that
Aimee Erickson
it definitely your progress as far as moving forward, to stop and paint but, but it’s a lovely way to experience the world. As you know.
Eric Rhoads
How long did it take to go cross country?
Aimee Erickson
Two months. Wow, two months. We averaged 60 miles a day, and took a day off about every 10th day.
Eric Rhoads
That’s spectacular. It takes a special person to be able to do something like that. I’m very impressed.
Aimee Erickson
Oh, thank you, Eric. At the time, I was just casting about for something that felt like it would help me move, get unstuck. I want to get unstuck, really. And it’s interesting, when you’re riding a bicycle and camping, and you have all your gear with you, you know, you wake up in the morning and there’s mountains on the horizon, you ride the flats all day, and then you camp at the base of the mountains, and the next day you’re climbing, and it’s almost impossible to maintain a feeling that you’re not moving forward in life, because the landscape changes right in front of you every day.
Eric Rhoads
What a great experience. Wow, yeah. How long ago did you do that?
Aimee Erickson
That was 21 years ago. Okay, yeah.
Eric Rhoads
So I would like to know, there’s so many different things that I’d like to know. I want to talk a little bit about some of your ideas about plein air, painting your thoughts about it. There’s a lot of people who have different feelings about it getting over commercialized or or, you know, a lot more people doing it now. So what? What’s your feeling about the entire plein air movement? Because you’ve been doing it a long time, and things have changed considerably in the last 20 years, since you went to Florence.
Aimee Erickson
That’s true, and it’s delightful to me to see how many people are taking it up…that something, it’s so to your point that so many more people are doing it, and it’s so much more, sort of in the public eye,
Eric Rhoads
it’s almost become like a sport in it. And I don’t mean to diminish it in any way.
Aimee Erickson
I mean, I don’t think that there’s, I don’t think it does diminish it. I think that, you know, for people for whom it’s personal, it’s still personal. Yeah, and at you know, you can take your gear and step out your door and find your world. It’s always there. Honestly, my only, my only concern, and it’s not a huge one, is for people who start out painting. They’re like, I’m going to take up painting, and I’m going to, I want to do plein air painting. And they just don’t know how hard it is. Like, how to me, it’s like, if you’re a swimmer, it’s like, swimming in the ocean, as opposed to swimming in a swimming pool. You have to deal with the elements, and the stuff will come and knock you over. And there’s tides, and there’s big weather and there, you know, and you need all the skills to do it. Not to say that you can’t go out there as a beginner. You definitely can.
Eric Rhoads
Well, let me, let’s, let’s context if, if you knew how hard the bike trip was going to be, because it was a lot harder. Than you ever imagined. It would be right?
Aimee Erickson
No, no, no. I didn’t really say that. There were unexpected things, but I but, but no. I mean, in that, I don’t think that’s the I know what you’re saying, Yeah, to find that like, if you don’t know, then you go ahead and try. And I think that’s applicable for plein air painting,
Eric Rhoads
And I think that’s really important. I mean, everybody has to go through pain and growth, a pain to get to growth. And no matter what they do, plein air painting is hard. There’s no question about it, yeah. And, but at least you’re painting, right? At least you’re struggling with something that’s fun, something that is enjoyable. It’s not as much fun for me working out and struggling with weights, right? So I think that, you know, there’s, there’s positive benefits to it, but I get what you’re saying, and I think that’s great. There are a lot of people who are like, Oh, this is going to be fun, and this is going to be easy, and they get surprised.
Aimee Erickson
And my point isn’t that they shouldn’t do it. My point is not to warn people off. It’s too at all. My point is just, I think I just don’t like to see people discouraged early.
Eric Rhoads
so how do you how do you prevent that?
Aimee Erickson
manage your expectations up front. You know, if you’re not a painter, then you have, there’s some materials, ground you have to cover, some technical ground you have to cover, and you just do very simple paintings so that you can not be managing 18,000 things at once.
Eric Rhoads
I had an instructor who a long, long time ago, he said, what I’m going to teach you is hard, he said, but I’m going to be there with you all every step of the way, and when it gets hard, I’m going to help you get through it. But you have to know it’s hard, and for somehow that helped. Because I had some friends who went to a class and they gave up because it was too hard, yeah. So sometimes that helps. So let’s talk about a pretty cool thing that just happened to you. You were part of an exhibit, a French moderns exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art. Let’s talk about that. I think that’s pretty remarkable. That would be a career milestone. As far as I’m concerned.
Aimee Erickson
It was a high point. The Portland Art Museum is hosting the Monet to Matisse exhibition on loan from the Brooklyn Museum. And in order to activate the exhibition space, they invited me and one other painter, Bhavani Krishnan, on different days, to come into the museum, go into the gallery with the French impressionists, and set up my plein air gear and then paint for, you know, three or four hours. And the idea was that people coming in to the exhibition would have a way to under like a new way to access the exhibition and to understand painting. And in fact, at one point, a woman who had been watching said to me, I’m watching you paint, and I understand the season.
Eric Rhoads
So you were painting next to, what were you set up or what was close to you?
Aimee Erickson
There was a Renoir. And to my right, there was a Cezanne. To my left, there was a Baldini. Across the way, there was a Degas on the way in, on the wall. On the opposite side of the wall to my right, there’s a Sisley, one of Monet’s paintings of the cathedral in the mist
Eric Rhoads
and what were you painting?
Aimee Erickson
I decided to paint the scene in the gallery. I wanted it to I wanted it to be accessible to people. I wanted them to be able to say, Oh, what are you painting? And then to find it in the gallery. You know that, oh, it’s actually this scene. So I painted a scene of, I painted a scene of a young woman looking at the Cezanne painting with and they’ve painted the walls in the gallery these pastel shades of blue and lavender, just beautiful. So it’s a very floaty, airy space. And so I had a model come in, and she posed for me. Stood in front of the Cezanne, and I painted her, and then there’s a few other paintings in the background.
Eric Rhoads
you painted the Cezanne as well with the model. So that must have been fun.
Aimee Erickson
It was so fun. It really was so uplifting, just a lot of joy. And it was a free day at the museum. So once, you know, I got to set up before the museum was open. So I was in there alone with my gear and these paintings. And then it filled up, and there were, you know, probably 2500 people through the museum. That day, I had to add an extra light on my easel, because the lighting in the gallery is meant to go onto the paintings. I was in kind of a dark spot, so I got a foldable music light.
Eric Rhoads
Oh yeah, those are great.
Aimee Erickson
to clamp on my easel. Which was great,
Eric Rhoads
And how long so you had to paint your model around crowds, right? Because you’re painting the model, did you try to block her in before the crowds came in?
Aimee Erickson
Yes, I started. It was one of those paintings where I started. I kind of sketched out what the whole scene would be just lightly. And then I started in the middle and worked out she also wasn’t able to stay the whole time so, but there is, she was only standing about, you know, eight feet away from me, and there were times when I couldn’t see her at all because it was so crowded. Yeah, the other thing was, I was facing to the side just because of the traffic flow patterns. I didn’t want to create bottlenecks against artwork. And so you know how does in plein air painting people onlookers sometimes get confused because they assume that you’re facing your subject right, and if you’re turning your head 90 degrees to look at it, it’s it’s kind of revelatory for people to realize that your subject isn’t straight ahead of you like it is with a camera.
Eric Rhoads
Yeah. Well, I think that people would be clearly confused about that. So did you have any experiences with the crowd? You mentioned the one woman. Did you have a lot of interaction with the crowd?
Aimee Erickson
A lot, yeah, the that was kind of a dual purpose to the exhibit it was or to me being there was not just to finish a painting, so I was I made a lot of time to talk to people and answer questions and let them step up close to the painting and see what it looked like up close.
Eric Rhoads
So let’s transition that discussion into a discussion about when you’re outside painting and the same thing happens. How do you deal with that?
Aimee Erickson
So those conversations are a little bit different, because that’s not the reason I’m there. Usually I don’t mind. I’ll usually say hello to people, but I don’t really turn my full attention to someone who’s approaching me while I’m painting. Yeah.
Eric Rhoads
So would your goal to be to not talk to people? You know, I know artists, for instance, they’ll put some headphones in their ears even if they’re not listening to anything, just so they don’t get bothered or interrupted. I think that a lot of people who are listening to this face these issues and don’t know how to deal with them, because they may be new to this. What are your best
Aimee Erickson
It’s interesting question. Because, yeah, if, if you really don’t want to interact with people, headphones are a great strategy. And if, I mean, I’ve met people while I’m painting that, and had lovely exchanges. So I’m not, but there are also times when I’m really focused and just like, cannot pull my eyes off my painting, and I don’t want to, you know, and it is an interruption. It’s so people are so it’s people who come up to me and say, excuse me. I don’t want to interrupt you, but
Eric Rhoads
to me, that’s part of the joy of the whole thing is sometimes I don’t get anywhere with my painting, but, you know, I meet people that I never would meet otherwise, talk to people I never would talk to otherwise. And it’s to me, it’s a great opportunity to evangelize for plein air painting, and especially if they have kids. You know, to me, I love if they have kids, I’ll say, Hey, can I give your kid a quick lesson? And then they’ll hold them up, and I’ll show them how to do the brush and let them paint on my painting. And I don’t care if they screw it up, because I can fix. It. But I’m, you know, my goal is to get people interested. So that’s different though. You know, if you’re out there trying to get a, especially if you’re in a competition, you’ve got to get a finished work, and it’s got to be good.
Aimee Erickson
That does change the situation a little bit there. There was one time I was painting in Yosemite with Carl Bretzke. And you know, there’s a lot of people come from other countries to see that amazing place. And people were stopping and talking to us in languages from all over the globe with a sense of utter joy. They, you know, they, in fact, one German couple stopped, and she said to me, do you she looked at you know, I was painting. She said, do you do this just for joy? And I said, Yes, yes,
Eric Rhoads
yeah, well, it is joyful, isn’t it? Isn’t that a wonderful question? Yeah, it’s a great question. Yeah, I don’t want to digress, and I’ll be quick, but I was painting with Richard Lindenberg. We were painting in Banff, in Lake Louise, and there were a lot of tourists around. Busloads of tourists, I don’t know where they were from. And these two guys kept standing there, and they were talking. I couldn’t understand them. They’re looking at us and talking and they’re strategizing on something. Next thing you know, there’s a guy standing there with the camera. The other guy comes and checks me, literally checks me out, grabs my brush, checks me, and takes his picture at my painting
Aimee Erickson
That happened to me one time. That happened to me one time, this Chinese couple came up to me in Monterey, and she just grabbed my brush, and he and posed like she was painting my painting, and he was taking pictures. And they were overjoyed. They were having a blast that I was
Eric Rhoads
well, they probably, they probably didn’t know how to, how to ask you, because so this was a solution. So one of the things that I love about plein air painting are the memories that come with them, specifically memories like I can look at any painting on it on my walls and go, Oh, I was painting with this group. Here. I was in this web, this demonstration here, I remember painting there. There was a deer that leaped in front of me. Are there? Are there the kinds of memories like that come to you? And do any come to mind that are really special plein air experiences?
Aimee Erickson
Oh gosh, there have been so many. I will say that I can I, I know that feeling it that you’re saying of seeing a painting and it bringing back the whole experience. But I have also had the experience of seeing a painting and having no recollection at all of doing it in my own studio. That one doesn’t look familiar the I have one in here. Now that’s pretty special to me. That is a little study that I did at the Fechin studio in Taos, and I did it last year. It’s special to me because, you know, art crosses borders and um, Nikolai Fechin emigrated from Russia and lived in New York for a bit, and then lived in Taos and built his home and studio. And I was there with the group of artists from Turkmenistan, which we had done a cultural exchange. So they it was their turn to visit, and I was hosting, and we visited the fashion house. And of course, the Turkmenistan used to be a Soviet Republic, right? How? That is, how that area of the world was modernized in the 1920s and so the painting tradition in Turkmenistan is Russian. The Russians established the painting schools, and their training is Russian. And it’s so clear when you see how they work the Russian influences. It’s, that’s, it’s what they do. So to be at the Fechin studio with these artists from this other part of the world, and Zufar Bikbov was there translating. We also had a translator who was a retired language professor, but it just felt like this really special meeting across cultures and across the world, that where art was the thing that joined us, literally, oil paint was right there. Bring you know that we all practice that in different ways. So that’s a special one.
Eric Rhoads
Well, that’s special on so many different levels, because also, you’re in Fechin’s studio, you’re surrounded by his work and his, I mean, even his woodwork, right? The beautiful stairway that he built in the studio. Going. So you mentioned that, you know, it’s very clear that the Russians work in a particular way. Was there anything about that, that that you found completely different than what you do?
Aimee Erickson
that’s it’s a really good question. I feel like I some there’s the way I would characterize the Russian approach to plein air painting is just extremely dynamic, dynamic, very bold, very confident. They tend to paint quickly. There’s, yeah, it’s, it’s very forward, moving in a way that captures a so much. Um, dynamic
Eric Rhoads
about overthinking things thickly quickly and thickly
Aimee Erickson
That’s right. And when you watch them, there’s, you know, you might get the sense that they’re just flinging paint. Um, it’s kind of like watching Eric Jacobson. He kind of paints like this too. He’s very influenced by the Russian way of painting, and it’s possible to watch him and just think he’s just flinging it. He’s just like flip, just scribbling and but his mind is working so fast, and his hand can keep up with it that, but there’s so much knowledge encapsulated in every movement that it’s it just can happen really quickly when, when there’s that much know how
Eric Rhoads
well you teach a lot, what do you find are the things that most of the students are struggling with that you’re trying to help them overcome. And what are the things that you recommend to students to try to push themselves to the next level?
Aimee Erickson
You know? I that’s such a good question. I do teach a lot, and I’ve, I’ve been doing a lot of online teaching lately, since I started the paint club, and we meet live twice a month and do lessons and paintings and things. And I, honestly, I find that I think it’s useful to know where you are, and you talk about pushing to the next level, and I think you and I have talked about this before, where I think it can be very beneficial to not be pushing too hard. Like to just focus on the one thing that’s next for you and know where your comfort zone is, and expand one thing so that you don’t get overwhelmed. Now that’s different for different people, because some people like more pressure. Like you, I remember you like painting under pressure. You like trying really hard, am I right?
Eric Rhoads
Yeah. Well sometimes,
Aimee Erickson
yeah, so I like to do easy exercises where it’s not me trying to explain to them something that they have to intellectually take in and intellect, you know, and remember, I like to set it up so that they’re mixing paint and making decisions, and it puts them in that place of paying attention. And when they get to the end of it, they’re like, Oh, I just learned a lot, a lot.
Eric Rhoads
Well, I just conducted a workshop with a group of people here in the Adirondacks and and I I broke it down as much as I could, like that, because it’s too overwhelming, especially if you’re new to to look at a landscape and go, I gotta figure out how to paint the distance, the mountain, the tree, the rock, the water. You know, there’s a lot of stuff going on. Oh, yeah. So, so, you know, I just basically said, Okay, on this one, we’re going to just focus on this one thing. So that is that what you mean is like, if you want to tell your students, okay, today, we’re going to paint a rock,
Aimee Erickson
yes, yes, yes, yes. Exactly that it can. And you can simplify your painting in a lot of ways, right? Like you’re, you’re reminding me of when I did take that class in Florence. Joe Paquette was the instructor. He’s brilliant, yes. And on our first day out, he said, you know, we’re, we were at the piazza Michelangelo overlooking the entire city of Florence, and he said, Pick one house and one tree. And that was really useful, because it’s easy to get overwhelmed by subject matter. But you can also simplify your painting in other ways, right? You can simplify your palette. You can work in, you know, one color plus white, or you can work in two colors plus white and x. Floor, you know, the warm, cool aspect of something you can, you know, paint with a bigger brush that forces you to simplify. So there’s more than one way to find your way in and that’s really, for me, that’s the magic that nobody can do for you, is to find that little thread that is your way into your painting.
Eric Rhoads
then, what would you say if you were giving advice to anybody listening who is like I want to, I want to try this plein air thing, and I don’t want to struggle too much too fast. You’re going to what’s, what’s your best advice?
Aimee Erickson
Okay, I’m so glad you asked. I have very good advice for people who want to start and start and don’t know where, get 50 panels and prep them and they should be small ish, like six by eight or eight by 10. And plan on get one brush that you like and choose, like maybe five colors, and plan on doing 50 paintings before you assess anything. Just just go out and paint for two hours, and then you’re done for the day. Then do the next one. And then after you’ve done 50, you can line them up and think about it, but don’t overthink it too soon.
Eric Rhoads
That’s a big task.
Aimee Erickson
It takes the pressure off a single painting to be anything too special. It puts it in as a place where, like, it’s just today’s painting, and I can lay down some paint and see what happens. But I’m also, I also know that I’m going to do another painting tomorrow, next week. So it sets it up as a longer on ramp. Instead, you’re developing muscle memory.
Eric Rhoads
Yeah, you’re developing if by limiting yourself to time, you’re developing, you get to a point where you can’t overwork everything. So I think it’s a great exercise.
Aimee Erickson
Kinds of limitations are really good. I think, you know, you can limit your number of brushstrokes or the time. Yeah, I have one student, Tess. She was doing 500 paintings before she that was just her goal, 500 paintings, and she just numbered them, and she was doing great. She was in the three hundreds at the point that we talked about it, awesome.
Eric Rhoads
I know. Yay Tess. Well, I think that’s absolutely fabulous. Talk to me about composition. Nobody talks about composition enough, and you are so good, you’ve got a wonderful section in your book about that. Talk to me about composition technique. What you really like to emphasize when you’re thinking about composition?
Aimee Erickson
So composition, I’ll tell you, it’s a little bit reactionary to my stance on composition, because there are so many rules. And I’ve seen students, a rule is something that’s so easy to remember, like, don’t put your subject dead center. But those rules are oversimplified and can be a bit of a red herring, because they don’t always apply, right? So what we need is a broader way to understand how to structure the space within the format. So composition starts with the four sides of the picture, and if you look at a blank canvas, take a square one, a portrait rectangle and a landscape rectangle, they feel different from the start. You can, you can look at the shapes alone, just the square and the rectangle, and feel how they are different from each other, and that ability to feel shape is something that it behooves us to to build. We want to build that sensitivity because composition really is just a complicated version of what’s happening within the space, but if you can feel it, then that’s really what it’s all about. Because the a strong composition is one that feels really good. It feels solid, it feels like it has direction, it feels like it has movement. You don’t get stuck in any one place, but there’s unlimited ways to get to that point. And I feel that the rules are a red herring. They they. They put you in a place where you’re following something that you’ve been told, instead of centering yourself on something that you can actually tell for yourself.
Eric Rhoads
Well, I like to re I like to refer them as guidelines, sure,
Aimee Erickson
yeah, and they are helpful guidelines that work really well in some situations.
Eric Rhoads
I do on, on feedback Fridays, on my art school live daily show. I do a lot of composition work, and I’ll, I’ll take paintings and I’ll critique them. And I’m always saying, you know, the rule is, or the guideline is, don’t put it dead center. But sometimes somebody puts it dead center, and it just absolutely works. And you know, you so you have to look at them as guidelines, because sometimes, you know that’s the only place that’s going to work for a certain composition, right,
Aimee Erickson
right? And I think that it can help, be helpful too, to think of composition as occurring on a scale from from dynamic to static, and that the extreme end of dynamic is chaos, and the extreme scream, extreme end of this of static is boring, but before you get to boring, there’s calm. And so we’re looking to land somewhere in the interesting zone. So you’re moving things around and arranging them. I think one of the most important things is the realization that you can move things around a lot more than you think people take reality for granted. This is where the thing is and there’s so much more leeway when it comes to putting things where you want them.
Eric Rhoads
Well, I hear from purists, and I’m not being critical of them, but some purists are like, it’s not a plein air painting if you move a tree or you move a mountain or it’s not a plein air painting. If it’s not done in one session, it’s not a plein air painting. If you work on it after you get it back to the studio, how do you feel about those, those comments?
Aimee Erickson
Uh, uninterested. I don’t really have any skin in in the game to like, define what it is I’m the goal
Eric Rhoads
is to do a great painting.
Aimee Erickson
Yeah, or just to get out there and like, enjoy the world and lay down some color. Sometimes you just need to lay down some color, and then you feel fine,
Eric Rhoads
yeah, just go out for joy, yeah.
Aimee Erickson
But I think that shows in your painting too. You know, if there is joy in the process, it gets into your painting
Eric Rhoads
you wanted to talk about a painting that you did called the yellow cup. And I’m curious what it is that you wanted to talk about the painting. It’s for those who are watching on our video version, you’ll be able to see it for those of you who are not Aimee’s going to describe what it is about this painting, which is absolutely lovely.
Aimee Erickson
Well, thank you, Eric. It’s a 24 by 36 and it’s a studio piece. It’s interesting. I thought it would be fun to talk about, because a lot of my work I do in one go. That’s smaller work, and I’ll just do the study, and it comes out how I like it, and I’m happy. And this, this one went through a lot more stages, and basically meaning I repainted the whole thing. I don’t even know how many times I did do a setup in my studio, and it’s quite a complicated setup. It probably has 30 things in it, and it’s on a table that’s reflective and it’s backlit, so it’s against a window, and the light’s coming toward us. There’s some big glass vessels a potted plant. There’s some fruit, and then, of course, there’s the yellow cup. So I was trying to figure out just how to get the painting to work. I sometimes will take an out of focus photo of the scene that I’m looking at, because it generalizes so it takes out detail when you kind of like squinting down, it is kind of like squinting, yeah, it’s a lot like squinting, yeah. Kind of generalizes things and lumps things together by value, which is useful and there are you can trick your cell phone into doing this by waving it around. But there the better way is to get an app. I use an app called Camera Plus legacy that has a manual focus slider so you can control it and it’s I find it very useful at the start of this painting. I The Canvas was painted pink, and my idea was to keep some of the pink, even though the setup was mostly blues and greens, and that ultimately did not work. I ultimately repainted it and repainted it and repainted it and ended up keeping the pink sort of in the center section. So unusual solution for me was to just go ahead and impose color zones in this painting, a green one on the left, a turquoise one on the right, and sort of a more natural pink one down the middle.
Eric Rhoads
Well, it’s something that for people who want to see it, look at your Instagram page or at your website or something, because if you have not been able to see it here, it’s just spectacular. Thank you, Eric. It’s hard to make a complicated, busy painting look right? They’ve done an incredible job of leading people into the yellow cup. The the reflections are killer. The light coming through the glass is amazing. It’s just spectacular.
Aimee Erickson
Thank you.
Eric Rhoads
What else you want to talk about?
Aimee Erickson
Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you in Laguna.
Eric Rhoads
Well, yeah, that’s exciting. You’ve painted Laguna. I think you said five times
Aimee Erickson
It’s like you could not remember, Eric, how many plein air conventions there are? Well, you were saying, I think Kelly was like me, I don’t remember exactly how many of everything I’ve done, either six. I Laguna is such a great event. I have felt so lucky to be a part of it. And of course, the scenery down there is beautiful, and they have a great group of artists, and I think you’re going to really have a good time.
Eric Rhoads
I am looking forward to it. You know, I don’t know if I ever told you this, but back before I became a plein air painter, I just happened to be in Laguna during the event, and I didn’t see anybody, I don’t think I saw anybody painting. I just happened to see the museum show, and I walked in, I thought, These paintings are different and I didn’t buy one, and there was one that I loved that I regret not buying. I stepped outside with my wife to talk about it. We came back, it was gone. And for us at the time, you know, we had no money and had no ability to, you know, so spending a few $100 was a big deal, and it was just such a spectacular event. And I don’t know that it even registered with me for a while, until much later, when I started digging into the whole plein air thing. And so I’m very much looking forward, because I don’t think I’ve been back. I went one time when I decided to launch plein air magazine. I took some brochures at a dummy cover with a different logo, and it had a Camille Pzrewodek on the cover. And I took that around to kind of talk to people about what I was going to do. And everybody’s like, yeah, right, you’re going to do that sure, you know? So, so I, I’m very much looking forward to it, and looking forward to seeing you there, and maybe we’ll get a chance to paint. You have any travel coming up other than that?
Aimee Erickson
Yes, I’m planning, Suzie Baker and I are going to go paint in Spain.
Eric Rhoads
Ah, can I come?
Aimee Erickson
I know in southern Spain, we’re going to go to Granada. We’re going to go to Olvera, which is a tiny town where some friends of ours live. I’m really, I haven’t really spent that much time in Spain. I’ve been in northern Spain, but I’ve never really spent time in southern Spain. So I’m looking forward to it. We’re going to try to pack up a smallish kit. That’s always the thing. You know, if you want to take if you want to do oil you have to figure out a way to pack all your paintings.
Eric Rhoads
So yeah, so have you got any creative ideas?
Aimee Erickson
Well, I do sometimes oil paint in my sketchbook, and that’s been really great for travel. I shellac the pages in my sketchbook, and although the moleskin heavy sketch is, is so it’s got, like, a heavy size on it already. So I’ve also oil painted directly on that paper. That’s my best way to travel light with oil paints. Just take a small setup and paint in my sketchbook. That means that you have a cherished sketchbook and nothing to hang on the wall.
Eric Rhoads
well, that kind of takes some pressure off, I suppose. Yes, an artist one time told me, he takes, he takes linen that’s not mounted to panels. He cuts them in squares. And he puts Velcro in the back of him, and then he has a Velcro panel, and he sticks them on, and then he has a velcro sheet, and he hangs him up on a shower curtain and and he sticks him on there to dry. That way he can stack, you know, 50 of them in a two inch. That’s too much.
Aimee Erickson
I have another one. And you know what? Ray Roberts does this too. There’s a substrate called Multimedia artboard. Yeah, this is great, terrific. It’s a resin impregnated paper, so it’s rigid but brittle. And you can now buy from the manufacturer. They make it with linen, primed linen, already adhered to it. What I used to do is, is glue muslin down to it and gesso and tone it myself. But it is great because it’s as it’s the thickness is, like thick paper, yeah? So you can pack so many more of them,
Eric Rhoads
yeah. The only thing that is not a positive about those, and they are fabulous, and they’re a customer, and I have some right here, and I take them when I travel, is that if you use a typical panel carrier, if you’re slipping them into a panel carrier, they bend or they end up touching each other, because it’s not a very stiff surface. So you’ve got to figure out a way to overcome that. Maybe they’ll come up with something. But great idea, yeah,
Aimee Erickson
well, we could write a book about the different ways that paintings have changed on the in transit, while wet,
Eric Rhoads
usually not, usually not to the benefit of the painting. No.
Aimee Erickson
But you know what? One time I had a painting in the back of my car and a stool rolled across it and across another painting and then rolled back and transferred from paint from one painting to the other, and one of my painting buddies, whose opinion I value very highly. Later, when it was in my studio, pointed at that mark and said, I really like this mark. And you know what, Eric, I was like, I’ve been trying too hard. I’m controlling this way too much. I need more accidental stuff. Because he was right, it looked really good.
Eric Rhoads
Do you ever deconstruct paintings? Yes, I think that that’s been one of the great lessons for me, is the idea of, I was painting in New Zealand and Mitch Netto, I was looking at my painting, and it was just too hyper realistic and, you know, too tight. And I just said, I’m going to repaint it. And so I scraped it down. And then I and then my my buddy Mitch said, Don’t touch it. It’s perfect. So just by scraping it down, it just gave it that texture it needed, that life it needed.
Aimee Erickson
Yes, this is a great thing to know that you can do. Sometimes it’s midway through a painting, you take this, take some paint off, if you the thing is, like, a lot of people are just like, giving up and scraping is a little bit different from knowing that you can scrape to move forward, right? And, like, pay attention and see what happens and but yeah, it’s I’ve almost never seen scraping happen where it didn’t make the painting better.
Eric Rhoads
I actually the other thing that’s been really interesting, I’m working on a gallery show, and I had a painting that the gallery wanted, but it wasn’t finished yet, and I started working on it, and I really screwed it up and I didn’t like it, and so I waited for it to dry, and I took it out, and I sanded it down, and I didn’t sand it all down, I just kind of sanded some of it down, and it really came alive. And it’s like, I just want to varnish it the way it is. It was really interesting and fun. Was not didn’t look like any of the others. But sometimes that’s what it takes. Well, Aimee, this has been delightful. I’m looking forward to seeing you at LPAPA. I want to congratulate you again on everything that you’re doing your book, I want to pull that up again. Is amazing. It’s called plein air techniques for artists and, and I don’t, I don’t typically promote things too much, but I think this is something that’s well worth everybody getting it, because it’s different. You know, it has these examples of other artists and what they’ve done and and sometimes it’s, it’s important to see that, so you’re trying to figure out something about light, and you see five examples of somebody else who’s done it just really makes a big difference. So congratulations on that.
Aimee Erickson
Thank you, Eric, and thank you for having me on
Eric Rhoads
it’s a pleasure. All right, thank you, Aimee. Bye, bye. All right. Well, that was Aimee Erickson, and we want to thank her again. Don’t forget her book, plein air techniques for artists. Now it’s time for the art marketing minute.
Announcer
This is the marketing minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the number one Amazon bestseller, Make More Money Selling Your Art: Proven Techniques to turn your passion into profit.
Eric Rhoads
So if you have questions, you can email them [email protected] By the way, artmarketing.com is a really great resource. There’s a lot of articles on there about marketing your art, and a good place to kind of poke around. And so check it out. If you guys ever want to come live on the podcast to record your questions. I do. I do a lot of live on the weekday, Monday Marketing Show for art school live on YouTube. Here’s a question from Linda Jack from Virginia. I’m seeing these for the first time. By the way, the question is pricing and how to use social media effectively are always a struggle. Any suggestions? Well, those are two big questions, two questions that deserve a lot of time on their own. Pricing is the most difficult thing, other than learning to paint, that I think artists have to deal with and pricing has a lot to do with the environment that the painting is sold in. Keep that in mind that now if you were selling paintings at a high end show filled with multi millionaires, and they were selling $20 paintings there people aren’t going to buy them, because they’re not going to think they’re any good. And but if you’re selling paintings at the farmers market or the flea market or something, that’s going to be a different story too. So environment, the type of gallery you’re in, if you’re in a gallery, the environment makes a big difference. And so always think in terms of environment. Now you should, typically not, I don’t like to have rules, but I like to have guidelines. You typically should have your prices be your prices so that somebody, especially if you’re a gallery artist, if your paintings are in a gallery in Wisconsin and they’re in a gallery in California, and you can look them all up online. You want to have, you know, similar pricing, so that a nine by 12 is the same as a nine by 12. Now there are exceptions to that, because sometimes I’ll work on a painting for 100 hours, and I want to get more money for it. And so that would be an exception, because not not all paintings are equal, even if they’re equal in size. And then there’s all kinds of great books on pricing, but pricing is about kind of testing the market, putting it out there, starting a little higher if it sells well, move it up a little higher. More. If it sells well, move it up a little higher, more. If it doesn’t sell well, move it down a little bit. And also build in a little room for negotiation, because sometimes people need to negotiate. Some people can afford it, but they don’t. They won’t buy unless they can get a better deal. So just build in a little of that into your pricing, in terms of social media, in terms of effectively doing social media. You know, there’s, there’s courses on this. It’s not an easy task to just give you an answer to this, but I will tell you this, there’s a couple of things about social media. First off, what I’m learning is that post it depends on on what you’re posting on, so if you’re posting on X, formerly Twitter, then you can post 3, 4, 5, 6, times a day, because it moves very fast. If you’re focusing on Instagram, experts say once, maybe twice a day. If you’re focusing on Facebook, three, four times a day is fine, but it depends, because there are what we call time zones, or the times when people tend to check, you know, the masses. There are times when the masses are there. And the masses are typically there before work, during lunch time and after work. And so the busiest time for social media typically is after work. Now, different time zones are going to see things different ways. And so, you know, it’s, it’s nine o’clock in New York, it’s six o’clock in in Laguna. So you know you want to kind of time things to the time when the audience that you’re trying to reach is most important. And then keep your content focused on what you want your content to be known for. So if you, for instance, are a painter, and you want to be known as a painter for collectors or finished paintings, then you know, only put finished paintings on there, or maybe, maybe you painting in a location with that painting in the finished painting. I don’t like progress shots, typically, because most people don’t read that it’s in progress, and they look at it and they go, Ah, it’s not done. Or they’ll look at it and go, Oh, it’s it’s not good. So be careful about sharing progress shots. If you have a social media account that your primary purpose is to sell paintings, then don’t show pictures of food. Your cat. Keep it all about paintings, and then, you know, you can talk about the stories of the paintings. You can ask people for for comments. You can even say, you know, this one’s available. Sometimes I wouldn’t put that in the main post, but I put it in the first comment. So by the way, this is available, right? That way you’re not being too salesy, but that’s just a matter of opinion. So there’s a ton of other things social media is ever changing. It’s got to study it all the time. The you know, hashtags were all the rage now they’re not. They don’t matter anymore, because AI is kind of picking up and running with things, and so that that changes a lot.
Second question comes from Pat watam in Louisiana. Pat says, How do you get more eyeballs on your Instagram posts that will lead to serious potential buyers? Well, you know, it’s really the same question. The way to get eyeballs is to get people to to you gotta post. Post frequently. You gotta just because you post something doesn’t mean you can’t repost it. You know, I post things sometimes the same thing, 3456, times a year, at different times, because I want to be talking about things that are going on, or things that I’m doing, or things that are paintings that I’ve done, and you know you, you don’t always know who’s going to see them. So the algorithm at Facebook, and this is constantly changing, but Facebook, typically, if you have, let’s say you have 5000 followers of Facebook, is only going to show that to 200 maybe 100 followers. One, two, 3% maybe not even that. And if there’s a lot of interaction, if people make comments, if people if you’re responding to comments, if people are engaged, or if people share it a lot, then they will show it to a couple, a couple 100 more people, and then if that continues, they’ll show it to more and more. So the idea is you want to look for ways to get engagement, which is why asking questions. Do not be so bold as to say, Hey, give me a like or something like that, because that’s considered click bait. But you can just, you know, you can ask a question, you know, what does this painting remind you of? And that way you get engagement? Or does anybody know where this painting was done, or something like that? So you just get people talking and then make sure you respond. That’s one of the best ways to get eyeballs. Because I even learned recently that even if you have a Facebook group like I have Facebook groups. I have dozens of them for some of the various things that we do, like our we have a private Facebook group for fall color week, which is coming up, and as a result, only those people can see it. But Facebook doesn’t even push it out to all of them. I thought they did. They only push it out to five or 6% of those. And again, if there’s engagement, they’ll push it out to more. So you’re not even guaranteed that, if you’re in a group, that everybody’s going to see everything. So keep that in mind. Okay, well, anyway, that’s the art marketing minute. I do art marketing Mondays on my show art school live. You can find that on YouTube, and we do a whole lot more there. So anyway, there we go. Art marketing minute.
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This has been the marketing minute with Eric Rhoads. You can learn more at artmarketing.com.
Eric Rhoads
I want to thank you guys for listening. I hope this is helping. Aimee Erickson is absolutely amazing. Make sure you check her out. Check her out on Instagram, her website, everything, and she is a great leader in this industry. It’s not an industry this movement, and so she’s terrific. I want to thank her for doing this again today. Thank you guys for being here. You know, if you like, you share, you comment, it’s a good thing for us. That’s how we spread. We’ve had millions of downloads of this show, but we’d like more people to learn plein air painting or to get interested in it, to explore it. The plein air movement is exploding across the world, and we like to be there for them and help people understand it by listening to other artists or watching them. If you want to watch the version on YouTube, then you’re going to learn from them and growing from them. They’re terrific. So thank you again. A reminder, pastel live is coming up. That’s just around the corner. That’s pastellive.com. And then we’ve got realism live coming up. Realism live is learning more about realism. That’s at realismlive.com. We’d love for you to come to the plein air convention, pleinairconvention.com and last but not least, get your subscription to plein air magazine. You will enjoy it. Kelly Kane and Cherie Dawn Haas and the team, they do a really terrific job. That’s pleinairmagazine.com, if you’ve not seen my blog, I have one every Sunday. It’s called. Called Sunday coffee, and you can find it and subscribe to it for free at coffee with eric.com very rarely has anything to do with art. It usually has to do with I kind of write it for my kids lessons that I’ve learned, and I just started sharing it with people and it spread. So anyway, it’s pretty cool daily, Facebook, YouTube, art school live. Check it out. Hundreds of artists doing demonstrations. We actually do on Mondays, we do our art marketing. Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, we do free lessons. And then Fridays, I do feedback. Fridays, I’m going to be gone for a while because I’m taking these trips, and so I may have some guest hosts, and they do a better job than I do, so that’s actually to your benefit. But if you go to YouTube, go to art school live and hit the subscribe button, that’s pretty cool. And if you would do me a favor and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, X, etc, that would be nice. It’s at Eric Rhoads, R, H, O, A, D, S, and I am the publisher and founder of plein air magazine and a proud painter, and I’d like you to become a painter too. That would be really cool, if you’re not already thanks for your time today. Thanks for listening. I’m honored that you would take the time, and while you’re here, listen to some more podcasts. Remember, it’s a big world out there. Go paint it. We’ll see you. Bye. Bye.
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This has been the plein air podcast with PleinAir Magazine’s Eric Rhoads. You can help spread the word about plein air painting by sharing this podcast with your friends. And you can leave a review or subscribe on iTunes. So it comes to you every week. And you can even reach Eric by email [email protected]. Be sure to pick up our free ebook 240 plein air painting tips by some of America’s top painters. It’s free at pleinairtips.com. Tune in next week for more great interviews. Thanks for listening.
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Would LOVE to see a demo by Nicolas Lopez in English. Great episode, thank you Eric!