Plein Air Easton Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Philip Carlton talks purpose, inspiration, and marketing woes with Tim and Marie.  We recorded this compelling interview several months ago, but we weren't able to release it when we shifted our staff energy to redesigning our foundation website. Our apologies for the delayed release, but we hope you enjoy.

Philip Alexander Carlton is a self taught plein air painter who takes delight in the endless challenge of observational painting. Although his foray into outdoor painting began in the urban Midwest, his travels and artistic passion for scale and atmosphere left him enamored with the western states. He currently resides and paints most often in the desert canyons of Fruita, Colorado.

His artistic philosophy centers on the belief that painting is just as much about process as it is about product. Consequently, all of his work is started and finished on location, often over multiple days as light and conditions necessitate. For Philip, painting “en plein air” is its own form of expression and is not just a stepping stone towards creating larger works or a means by which to study an environment; creation in nature is at the core of his artistic practice. 

Although his chosen subject matter may change with the season and his visual style continues to evolve, it still carries with it the same soul of his early plein air work: his paintings have always served as a visual journal of his life and travels, and as such tell a story which can vary wildly between both the classically grand and the uncomfortably gritty locales that he explores.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

Bernie Dellario come into the studio to speak with Tim and Marie.  He talks about his painting trip to Italy that caused him to miss an early Plein Air Easton event, his approach to teaching, and gives Tim and Marie a little demo on how to mix paint.

“From the beautiful to the discarded, I am inspired by many things as an artist.  I rarely know what will be the subject of my painting efforts, but once discovered, I strive to articulate my impression of that reality into a collection of abstract shapes, strong design and color”

Bernard Dellario earned a bachelor's degree from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, PA with emphasis on finance and art history.  He studied Art at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia and attended several workshops with nationally known artists.  He has been a member of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters since 2003. Fondly known as WSLP, one of the oldest active artist organizations in the Washington area, Bernard currently serves as President. He teaches painting classes through several venues, has won national awards and exhibits throughout the Maryland Eastern Shore and Washington, DC regions.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

LIVE from Plein Air Easton 2022, Tim and Jess talk with alumni artist Julie Riker. They discuss her early years as an artist and how her career in architectural restoration influenced and informed her painting technique.

"I consider myself primarily an observational painter, painting mostly from life, and often outside ‘en plein air’. Painting in one session, “Alla prima” keeps the surface fresh. I like to look for interesting compositions and often don’t know what I will choose to paint until I get to a location. Sometimes what attracts me is simply a light effect and, though my work is representational, it is often the abstract patterns of shadows that get me started. I paint a vast range of subjects, and am always looking for a new challenge."

Pennsylvania artist Julie Riker studied Illustration at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  After graduating she became involved in the historic restoration of the PA State Capitol, replicating original decorative painting, stenciling and applying gold leaf and ornamental plaster finishes. In 1996 Julie started her own decorative painting business creating artwork for individual homes and businesses. Working out of her Camp Hill studio she specializes in custom art, decorative painting, murals and faux finishes for walls and furniture. She has travelled from New York to Florida for commissioned projects, and has even created and painted wall finishes for the PA Governor’s residence in 2002.

When not working for a client, Julie enjoys painting outdoors. Often these plein air paintings serve as inspiration for larger studio pieces, but some stand on their own as observations of the beauty and variety of nature. She has participated in many national plein air events and won several awards. Recent accomplishments are First Place at Paint Annapolis, Artist’s Choice Award at Paint Snow Hill, People’s Choice Award for Quick Draw at Finger Lakes Plein Air, Plein Air Magazine Award at the Wayne Plein Air Festival, Plein Air Salon Finalist, and Feature Artist juried into Plein Air Easton.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

It's our season finale and the kickoff of PLEIN AIR EASTON!!

As the event coordinator for Plein Air Easton, Marie Nuthall is truly the belle of the ball during the hottest week and a half of the summer in Easton.  Today hosts Tim and Jess turn the mic around on her and find out what brought her to the planning side of the largest outdoor painting competition in the country.  All three share their excitement for the festival they feel in the preceding days and give some details regarding what is new and exciting for the 18th year.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

Dan Weiss, president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, served as the judge of the 2021 Plein Air Easton art competition.  As we worked with Dan during the festival, we found him to be a passionate, kind, and easy-going man that was able to say incredibly intelligent things in a way that felt connecting when other wise people may sound exclusionary.  He joined us virtually from quarantine to share the story of how he became such a uniquely qualified candidate for his role at the Met and express his love for Plein Air painting.

A scholar of art history and a seasoned leader of complex institutions, Dan Weiss was previously President and Professor of Art History of Haverford College and, from 2005 to 2013 of Lafayette College. He holds an MBA from Yale and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in western medieval and Byzantine art, where he joined the art history faculty and in six years rose to full professor and then chair of the department. Three years later, he became the James B. Knapp Dean of Johns Hopkins’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. He holds a BA in Art History and Psychology from The George Washington University. 

The author of six books and numerous articles, Weiss has published and lectured widely on a variety of topics, including the art of the Middle Ages and the Crusades, higher education, museums, and American culture. His most recent books include In That Time: Michael O’Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam (2019), and Remaking College: Innovation and the Liberal Arts (2013). Earlier in his career, Weiss spent four years as a management consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton in New York.

The recipient of fellowships from Harvard University, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Weiss received the Business and Society Award from the Yale School of Management, the Van Courtlandt Elliott Award from the Medieval Academy of America for scholarship in medieval studies, the Distinguished Alumni Award from George Washington University, and he was inducted into the Society of Scholars at Johns Hopkins in 2018.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions & Scott Gratton.

Betty Huang is an artist, the owner of Studio B Gallery, the current president of The Working Artists Forum, and a long time partner of Plein Air Easton.  Tim and Jess sit down with Betty in the studio to find out more about how she became so ingrained in Easton's art scene.

A well-respected and award-winning artist, Betty is also the owner of Studio B Art Gallery in Easton, Maryland. Betty’s artwork is collected by clients worldwide, currently appearing in private collections on at least four continents. Inspired by her own travels, Betty consistently uses elements from around the world in her work, organizing workshops in cities and communities spanning the globe on her quest to enhance the arts community.

In addition to her own endeavors, Betty is also the President of the Working Artists Forum, a juried art organization with over 100 members on the Eastern Shores.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

As one of the founders of Plein Air Easton, artist Nancy Tankersley is a visionary that anticipated the growth of the Plein Air movement and took that opportunity to begin what has grown into the largest outdoor painting competition in the country.  Tim and Marie ask Nancy about the beginnings of Plein Air Easton, her definition of Plein Air, and the broader meaning of the growing movement.

Nancy Tankersley began her career as a portraitist but entered the gallery scene with figurative paintings of people at work and at leisure. Currently as she searches for the unpredictable, Tankersley moves between landscape, figures and still life. Incorporating non- traditional tools , supports and technologies for her paintings she remains faithful to her impressionistic style.

Active in the current plein air movement, and a founder of Plein Air Easton, she travels worldwide participating in competitions, judging and teaching. In 2018,2019 and 2020  she was invited to be an instructor and demonstrator at the Plein Air Convention in Santa Fe and released two instructional videos with Lilliedahl Videos. In 2016 and 2017 she was invited to exhibit at the prestigious Masters Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club in NYC. Recent honors include Best of Show at Parrsboro, Nova Scotia International Plein Air 2018, Best of Show at the Lighthouse Plein Air Festival 2017 and the Dickinson Award for Best Painting by a Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society 2016 Annual Juried Exhibit. In 2019 she was selected to be the Featured Artist at the 49th Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland. 

She is a Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society, the American Society for Marine Art, and the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters and also holds memberships in the Washington Society for Landscape Painters and the Salmagundi Club. Founder and Director of the Easton Studio, a workshops facility begun in Easton in 2010, the artist mentors and teaches workshops and also sponsors workshops by nationally known painters.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions.

Artist Nicholas O'Leary won the Quick Draw his first time at Plein Air Easton in 2019 earning him an automatic entry into the following festival, but when COVID altered the landscape of international travel he found himself unable to cash in his award.  With a safer situation in 2022, Nicholas is finally returning to our competition.  Jess and Tim talk with Nicholas about his inspiration and his take on the Plein Air scene in Norway.

Nicholas O’Leary (born in 1986 in Gisborne, New Zealand) has a degree in Architecture from the University of Auckland (2009). Since graduating he has lived and worked in Bergen, Norway, wher he can be found hiking in the mountains with his easel strapped to his backpack in often challenging conditions.

He has painted since childhood and has studied under many artists, most notably with Odd Nerdrum in Norway.

O’Leary works largely from life whereby the observation of previously unnoticed subtleties are prioritised. The recognition of which allow O’Leary to bend physical rules in his paintings and challenge our perceptions of truth and deception, reality and fantasy.

The accululation and manipulation of observations is not limited by a specific subject matter. He paints across the board, and has won international prizes in portraiture, figurative paintings, larger imaginative compositions, landscapes, cityscapes, and still lifes.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear.

Watercolor artist Thomas Bucci talks with Tim and Jess about his careers that led him to art and the era he grew up in that felt that careers in art were risky and not likely to succeed.  He proved them all wrong when he made more selling his architectural renderings than he did as an architect.

"I’ve chosen watercolor for its ability to quickly suggest form with loose washes and to conjure the illusion of detail with crisp brushwork. I also love the gestural quality, capriciousness, and spontaneity of a transparent medium. The way I approach watercolor requires me to work quickly and I’m willing to take the risks associated with that to fully realize its potential."

"I am always actively looking for ideas for paintings. Sometimes the scene serves up a ready painting idea and I just have to put it down on paper. More often ideas come from something less complete; a glimpse of atmospheric effects, the way sunlight lands on a surface, or an element in a landscape. The most important part of painting for me is not actually painting, but the mental preparation that I’m doing all the time, but I do paint at every opportunity. Small pencil or watercolor sketches are also a key part of my process."

"I paint in the studio but I prefer to work from life and on location, drawing inspiration directly from a subject. However, I treat what I see in front of me as a suggestion that can be manipulated as needed. A painting is not bound by existing light conditions, actual colors, or physical elements. I often move, eliminate, and add things to make a composition. This is the real joy of painting for me. I feel a painting is successful when I envision the result first and then make that happen. If a painting succeeds without a plan, it’s just luck."

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.

Plein Air Easton alumnus Leonard Mizerek joins Tim and Marie to chat about his long history competing at Plein Air Easton, his recent move to Florida, and his painting trips abroad.  Leonard also talks about his approach to preparing his palette and how different painting surfaces impact his works.

Leonard Mizerek Fellow, ASMA, nurtured his artistic love of nature while growing up and painting in the Brandywine Valley and countryside of nearby Pennsylvania. His early influence was with the Pennsylvania Impressionists and Brandywine School.

Known for his colorful, luminous seascapes and expressive brushwork, Leonard paints on site deriving inspiration from the many nearby coastal locations as well as harbors throughout the world. A central theme throughout Leonard’s work is his use of light. In Mizerek’s words, “ Light alters the color of all objects and touches those nearby. It sets a mood and evokes emotion, which I strive to portray in my work. I often explore various methods to interpret the way I view nature. I prefer marine subjects because I enjoy the way water reflects the floating objects, as well as the sky and time of day. It mirrors shapes and intensifies light. I paint outdoors to capture the light first hand and bring out all its color and luminosity.

Throughout the last few years, Leonard participated in several invitational Plein Air events including Mystic, Annapolis, winning Honorable Mention and Easton Md. winning Second Place in the Quick Draw event. He was featured painting live on TV France3 during a major antique boat festival. His painting was recently purchased by the Minnesota Marine Art Museum.

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To inquire about being a guest or sponsoring the Plein Air Easton Podcast, send us an email at info@pleinaireaston.com.

This episode is sponsored by JFM Enterprises, providing distinctive ready-made and custom frames & mouldings to the trade since 1974.

Music in this episode was generously provided by Blue Dot Sessions and Scott Gratton.