Plein air, in case you aren't in the secret circle of those who know, is a fancy (French) way of saying "outdoors" - as it relates to painting. In the last five months (right before I found out I was pregnant - though I haven't made the connection until now) I've been a lot more proactive about getting out of the house and going somewhere to make art. I started a Facebook group and, recently, a Meetup.org group to involve other local artists. It also led to an ongoing series of figure drawing sessions at the Burning House Art Studio in Apple Valley - but that's another topic worth a few more blog posts :).

While I am not new to plein air painting, it has been a long time since I pursued it with any intensity. Even now, doing it a couple of times a month is not really that intense - but I am enjoying it a lot and want to do more. I'm hoping it's possible with three little kids...we'll see. The projected arrival of kid #3 in early November has given me the momentum to start the groups and organize events. Probably because I know it will be tough to do anything for quite a while after the baby is born. So...the plan is to have fun and wear myself out so that I'm sick of art and am ready for a break from it. Or something along those lines :)

I wrote about our first, Oro Grande Sketch-out before. After that, we went to the Buddhist temple in Adelanto. The place is in the middle of nowhere (as is anything here, I suppose...this IS the middle of nowhere ;)) and it surprised me with beautiful architecture, a sculpture garden and what seemed like hundreds of birds (see video below and listen...it's beautiful).

At the same sketch-out, I met Kate of Katesfolkart , a wonderful local artists who paints scenes from the middle-of-nowhere I mentioned above and makes it look good :) She is now one of my most consistent sketch-out buddies.

I'll try to write a bit about every sketch-out we've had so far, so keep an eye out for more reports :). For now, some of my sketches from the Buddhist temple outing: