When the lilacs come out, Rochester's plein air artists emerge in full bloom

Colette Savage started with a single block of pastel nestled carefully between her fingertips.

The sun had finally emerged in Rochester, a reprieve from weeks of rain and a slow start to spring.

Savage tucked herself into the shadow of a lilac bush in Highland Park and got to work splaying color across a blank page. Today her supplies were nothing more than a black easel and an old pencil case filled with several dozen hues of blues, greens, pinks and purples ― some still chunky with potential, others worn down to a nub.

“I get to hold these right in my hand,” Savage said, her eyes fluttering from her canvas to a lilac bush off in the distance and back again. “I don’t have anything between me and the surface. It’s just me and my sticks of color.”

The flowers in Highland Park draw dozens of plein air artists like Savage outside each year.

To passersby, they might seem like little more than a whimsical addition to an afternoon stroll. But the art form of plein air ― a practice in which artists work outdoors, drawing inspiration from their surroundings ― stretches back centuries and encapsulates the world in a way that is unparalleled by work created in a studio off photographs, still life or memory, artists say.

In plein air, artists must work in tandem with nature: How is the light shifting in this exact moment? How does your paint respond to a gentle wind or the humidity in the air? How can you replicate the living color in front of you with the limited pigments you have on hand?

How much can you capture, on this day, in just a few hours outside?

“I can work on a piece forever in my house,” Savage said. “I could put in so much detail, but that’s not really what I’m going for. I’m going for more of an interpretation … The first time I worked directly outside, I was like ― oh my gosh, I just found my soul.”

What is plein air?

Artists have likely been practicing plein air for centuries, but the approach started gaining popularity in the 1800s after the invention of the paint tube.

Before then, artists mixed their own paints from raw pigments and oil that often dried quickly, mostly confining their work to a studio, said Eric Rhoads, an artist and publisher of PleinAir Magazine.

Around the same time, Claude Monet and other early impressionists challenged the rigid and precise style that dominated French art. They took their work to the French countryside, finding freedom in loose brushstrokes. Plein air in French means outdoors.

The artform was also starting to take root in America and parts of Europe, but really proliferated stateside under the influence of Theodore Robinson, an American who visited and painted Monet’s iconic gardens.

Rhoads said plein air saw a brief decline in the mid-20th century but regained its footing in the 1980s. The last two decades were a true revival of plein air art. Rhoads started painting plein air almost 25 years ago on a whim. The more he learned, the more invested he became.

Working off a photograph in a studio, Rhoads said artists can fall victim to “lies.” Depending on how the photograph is focused, certain colors or shapes are blown out and distorted. In person, an artist need only rely on their own perception to replicate reality.

He started PleinAir Magazine shortly after, which brought more awareness to the artform.

“I thought ― wow, this is a movement,” he said.

Before the turn of the century, Rhoads estimates, there only a few plein air events nationwide. Now there are over 500 events each year that draw thousands of plein air artists to learn more about the practice.

For him, the art is freeing: Plein air can be anything from a from a five-minute amateur sketch with a pencil and notepad to an elaborate landscape crafted with the most prestigious materials.

Painting the lilacs in Highland Park

In Highland Park last week, Kristin Malone and her lawn chair shrank under the lush backdrop of a large lilac bush.

The shrubs here were planted as long ago as 1897, emerging alongside the impressionists. Today, the collection of flowers stands 1,200 strong with blooms from more than 500 varieties. They’re a natural choice for today’s plein air artists.

Malone spent four days walking the park before she settled on a single lilac for her next piece. On this day, she would sketch the cluster of cross-shaped flowers in pencil. The next, she would return with watercolors and study how translucent the petals were in the afternoon light.

The painting was for a stranger who called Malone last year. The woman had moved away from Rochester and missed the lilacs. Malone took the commission with reverence, trying to capture the essence of the park even if those abstract details are hard to paint.

“I feel like I pick up more energy when I can smell things, hear nature,” she said. “There’s much more life to it.”

On this day, birds were singing nearby. The sun brought a heat to your skin, but a mild breeze left the air comfortable. The perfume of the lilacs was on full display. Malone tried to paint that scent once. She called it “Fragrance.”

“You’re able to put down on paper what people might not even bother to observe until they see your painting,” Pam Steinkirchner, another artist working nearby, said of plein air. On this day she was studying the shadows of a young lilac bush.

Savage, at times, considers the art form a historical record. She revisits the scenes of her work, on occasion returning to find charred Earth or new buildings that hide a once-beautiful landscape.

“Now nobody knows what was there,” she said.

On this day, she could only capture what was in front of her. She layered her sticks of color line by line, pulling the spindly trunk of a lilac bush from bright green grass. Wispy clouds floated across a cerulean sky.

With short strokes, purple flowers bloomed across her page.

Here, the lilacs would be safe from the rain determined to carry them away in the week to come.

Want to learn more about plein air?

Some plein air artists, like Colette Savage, belong to groups that organize “paint outs” to encourage the growth of the art form. Rochester has two groups: Greater Rochester Plein Air Painters and Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters.

Savage and fellow artist Victoria Brzustowicz will host a two-day workshop for plein air beginners at the Art Stop Studio in Penfield on June 3 and 10. Visit www.artstopllc.com for more information.

— Kayla Canne reports on community justice and safety efforts for the Democrat and Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @kaylacanne and @bykaylacanne on Instagram. Get in touch at kcanne@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester plein air artists find inspiration in Highland Park lilacs