Long Beach Museum of Art - Nothing Plain About Plein Aire

California, Seen – Landscapes of a Changing California, 1930-1970
Long Beach Museum of Art exhibit Nov. 7 – April 5, 2009
By Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright, 2008

Southern California is as much a state of mind, as it is a real place.
It is brilliant sunshine, Sorrento-like ocean views, combined with dynamic enterprise. That’s the story illustrated in the marvelous plein aire (painted outdoors) paintings at the new exhibit, California, Seen, at the Long Beach Museum of Art, opening Nov. 7th and running until April 5, 2009.
Families are welcomed Sunday, Nov. 16th, 1 – 3 p.m., to the Museum’s free Art making Workshops to learn how to make their own plein aire paintings. Museum educators will work with the children to experiment to make their own watercolor creations. All materials and instruction are provided free.
The artists on display in California, Seen, were influenced by European art styles of the late 19th century, especially Impressionism. While the majority of the works are watercolors, there are, also, vibrant oils. Paintings such as Ben Messick’s oil circus paintings have the vitality of an Edgar Degas painting, drawing the viewer into the churning scene. Messick, along with other stellar artists on display, such as Phil Dike, Millard Sheets and Charles Payzant were also artist/animators for Disney Studios, working on films such as Fantasia, Pinocchio and Snow White.
Of course, all plein-aire artists owe a debt to John Rand, the inventor, in 1841, of the patented tin tube of oil paint, called the “collapsible tube.”
“Without paints in tubes,” Pierre-Auguste Renoir, was quoted to have said, “there would have been no Cezanne, no Monet, no Sisley, or Pissarro, nothing of what the journalists were later to call Impressionism.”
Prior to the tin tubes painters put oil paint into animal bladders and then jabbed dabs out. With the tin tubes oil paint could be squeezed out in increments and the tubes resealed. This amazing technological advancement changed the work of painting. It made it easy for painters to be outdoors with their tubes of paints and created a new style of painting.
Art is always about us – and this exhibit in Long Beach is about “us” in California, as the area changed from open vistas into urban settings. There are lovely water scenes, such as Emil KosaJr’s Fish Harbor, and several of other harbors and coastline scenes. But there are also muscular scenes, such as Charles Keck’s Bean Hopper and Leonard Cutrow’s The Gravel Pit. Charles Payzant’s Circus Tent Interior portrays the same natural work depiction as Gustave Caillebotte’s Floor Strippers. Caillebotte was a generous patron of the Impressionist painters, organizing their first exhibition 1874. His own reputation as an artist has been enhanced in recent years with several large exhibits of his fine works.
Long Beach Museum of Art takes great care in writing excellent descriptive biographical information for most of the paintings, so that one learns about the artist, as well as the picture itself. The experience of this singular exhibit is both visual and intellectual. The variety of works presents an engrossing storyline of both the artists and their subjects.
All these beautiful paintings are on display in the very environment which inspired the artists. Long Beach Museum of Art sits on a bluff overlooking Long Beach Harbor at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, so that visitors may indulge in both painted and real ocean vistas. It’s a unique museum-going experience; One worth enjoying.

Long Beach Museum of Art
2300 E. OceanBlvd.
Long Beach, CA 90803
562-439-2119
www.lbma.org

ADMISSION:
Fridays – free
Tues. – Sun. . 11 a.m. -3 p.m.
Admission: $7 adults; $6 students & seniors; free for children under 12

Angela Rocco DeCarlo
Nov. 7, 2008
Copyright