STEVE SALO

Plein air Summer of 2017-18

 
Even in the age of google, most artists love their art books. I’ve gathered a treasured collection, found mostly at op shops and from secondhand book sellers. A few years ago I picked up Sargent at Broadway: The Impressionist Years, stamped ‘withdrawn from the Sunshine Coast Libraries stock and offered for sale with all faults’. This gem of a book is a record of outdoor paintings and informal portraits by John Singer Sargent painted during his summers spent in Broadway and nearby English towns, from 1883 to 1889. I read it with a feeling of nostalgia, wishing I’d been part of such a time, artists (with loved ones and friends) hanging out in nature painting en plein air.

I’ve had some of the happiest times of my life painting little snapshots of nature and enjoying ‘picnic and paint’ with my wife. We could be in any era, by any river, mountain or ocean. All I need now is a bateau-atelier (boat studio), life couldn’t get any better than that!
 

Picnic and Paint