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This is the latest in a series of stories by The Six Fifty about clubs and groups around Silicon Valley to meet new people, explore hobbies and foster community.
A landscape can sometimes be so picturesque that it looks lifted straight out of a painting. But plein-air painters — like the members of Peninsula Outdoor Painters (POPs) — may quite literally be doing the work of “lifting” those scenes into their canvas: They’re actively looking for those picturesque scenes outdoors and capturing their essence artistically.
Their art could include a meadow, a white sailboat, a crooked fence or the blueish-gray morning sky. But in any case, plein-air painting, the act of painting directly “in the open air,” allows artists to immerse themselves in all those details in their immediate environment, rather than working while cooped up in a closed studio.
It’s what the Peninsula Outdoor Painters do. The group convenes on Tuesday mornings at varying outdoor locations across the San Francisco Peninsula, organizing all gatherings using Meetup. This year, the POPs have begun repeating some of their events on the weekends for those who can’t make it on weekdays.
The group was founded in 1977 by a group of local artists, and is open to painters of all backgrounds and experience levels, with no membership fees or requirements. Sessions are completely free and provide a relatively unstructured setting for painting, but painters are asked to stay on designated trails and leave no trace behind.
Painting locations have included the Westpoint Harbor clubhouse in Redwood City, Holbrook-Palmer Park in Atherton and Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto, plus other scenic spots at beaches and open-space preserves.
“The primary reason people join is for social reasons, to meet other painters,” said Carolyn Chambers, the group’s current organizer. “And it’s also for a love of painting — they just love creating art. To get to do it in the company of other people who also love it is very enjoyable.”
Their goal isn’t to be hardcore or rigorous in pursuit of technical mastery. Instead, members get to gain experience painting while also enjoying the restorative effects of artmaking and time spent in nature.
“I’m not there to do a masterpiece in plein-air; I’m just there for the experience,” Chambers said. “If I get a good painting plein-air, (I think) ‘I am so happy. Thank you so much.’ I feel like the universe delivers a good painting through my hand. But if I don’t, or if only pieces of it were good, that’s okay. I had a nice time.”
Plein-air requires artists to concentrate and immerse themselves further into the natural landscape because they must paint within an environment that’s continuously changing, Chambers said. Artists have to continuously adapt their composition and accept that their finished piece may depart completely from their original vision. Attending to these minute and constant changes can engross artists so completely that their awareness of themselves begins to recede into the landscape.
“If I’m outside, I’m just totally immersed in the landscape: the sound of the wind and the sea, the smell of the plants, the call of the birds,” Chambers said. “It’s like my own persona has disappeared and my spirit is integrated with the landscape, like a tree is. When my painting nears completion, it’s like I come back into my body.”
Beyond the psychological benefits of immersing oneself in nature, the low-pressure environment and flexible style of the gatherings gives members ample freedom to paint without stress. For example, Kate Macgrew, who recently joined the group, did so looking for a beginner-friendly creative outlet.
“I’m very much a neophyte to art,” Macgrew said. “I was looking for something regional and artistic. I saw some ads that were talking about painting groups in my Instagram feed, and I was like, ‘Ooh.’” She then looked on Meetup and joined two groups, one of which was Peninsula Outdoor Painters.
The gatherings are also a place for people to rediscover artistic interests that receded during adulthood. POPs member Ching Tai drew frequently in high school, but put art aside for the next 37 years as the obligations of adult life took over. He didn’t return to it until two and half years ago.
“I think painting is a natural progression after you draw for a while,” he said. “My first few paintings were pretty bad. Now they’re a little better. People share their techniques and give some pointers, so it’s really nice.”
A longtime member, Carter, who declined to give her first name, has been with the group for 25 years. “About 25 years ago, I was ready to retire from being a registered nurse, but I wanted to do something after I retired,” she said. She discovered Peninsula Outdoor Painters when she saw people at Half Moon Bay’s Pillar Point Harbor painting beside the road, who redirected her to the POPs website.
Chambers believes that while competing responsibilities can keep many adults from making time for art, it may also be because they’re self-conscious and see painting as a specialized skill reserved for people with formal training.
“We all can draw,” Chambers said. “We grew up as children drawing, and then as adults we think we can’t do this, we can’t do that. Everybody’s their own worst critic. But everybody’s also the greatest supporter of everybody else who’s there.”
But painting for its own sake can be enriching, too. Concentrating on a painting can provide a temporary form of relief and reprieve from personal worries, like an emotional sanctuary.
“People should try art because art is cheaper than therapy,” Chambers said. “It uses a different part of the brain. It stops us from overthinking about the negative things happening in the world and in our life, or some things we’re worried about concerning ourselves or our families.”
Yet the experience of plein-air is not exclusively inward-looking. As members paint in publicly accessible locations, where their easels frequently attract passerbys, they invite conversations and introduce a social dimension to painting.
“Sometimes, community is more permanent — that’s like our friends and our neighbors,” Chambers said. “But sometimes community is temporary, like it was this morning when I was painting at Picchetti Winery and people were coming by and they wanted to look at my stuff and talk. I think maybe I added something to their day, and they added something to my day. What’s important is our personal happiness, and the happiness of our community and those around us.”
Chambers believes that art can be the conduit to both kinds of happiness.
“If we can just spread a little love in the world, then everything’s going to be better,” she said. “And I think we can use art to do that, both for ourselves and how we feel and then also, especially if we’re outdoors, for other people in our orbit.”
Peninsula Outdoor Painters meets at outdoor locations around Silicon Valley on Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and select weekend dates year-round (excluding holidays). Painting sessions are free. For more information, visit meetup.com/https-sites-google-com-view-peninsulaoutdoorpainters-home.
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