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The aroma of fresh paint wafted through the gallery area of
the Chadds Ford Historical Society Saturday evening. The paint was still drying
on the paintings that were hanging from the walls during a “Wet paint Sale”
that came after 25 local painters took part in a plein air painting day in the
area.

Plein air is French for open air. Plein air painters do
their thing outside instead of in a studio. Artists, Saturday, were given a
list of 16 locations from which to paint. Many of those locations were private
homes.

The event, the third of its kind at the Historical Society,
was the brainchild of Jacalyn Beam, a plein air painter herself and the person
who runs the art show for Chadds Ford Days.

“We didn’t have anything in the spring and February was
Andrew Wyeth’s favorite time to paint, and there’s a long plein air tradition
here in the Brandywine Valley. Nobody has an organized plein air event like
this,” Beam said.  “We’re
attracting people from five states.”

Some of the people taking part were nationally known
painters Kenn Backhaus and Nancy Tankersley as well as local painters such as
Billy Basciani of Kennett Square and John Hannafin of Pocopson Township.

Backhaus is a signature member of the Oil Painters of
America Society and has a TV show on PBS. Tankersley is the owner of South Street
Gallery in Easton, Md. She is known nationally for her plein air work and
figure painting, Beam said.

Beam added that the Chadds Ford Historical Society owes its
existence, in part at least to plein air painting.

She said it was about 45years ago when Andy and Jamie Wyeth
sold some of their work on a clothesline to help raise money to buy property
for the CFHS.

“It’s a tradition well worth reviving,” Beam said.

The “Wet Paint Sale” is for works the painters created that
day. They show up at the Historical Society beginning 7 a.m. and have their
canvases stamped with a log and a date so they can’t bring in a piece they did
previously. This year’s logo was a snowman because of the blizzard, Beam said.

“They’re only allowed to paint on those canvases,” she said.

She said the logo and date stamp turn the piece in a “record
in time” of the particular day, of what the conditions were like and how the
area looked at the time.

“When you plein air paint, you’re really documenting history
in a particular moment in time,” said Beam.

The conditions Saturday included a snow squall that did get
in the way for at least one painter.

Basciani said the snow interfered with the flow of his oil
paint and he had to scrape paint off and start again.

He said he liked the event anyway because it forces him to
continue working and gives him the chance to meet other artists.

As a fund-raiser, the Historical Society took 20 percent of
the sale price of the individual paintings. The 20 percent is a tax deduction
for the buyer, Beam said.