Artist Jacalyn Beam’s eyes
light up when she talks about plain air painting and the upcoming Chadds Ford
Historical Society’s plein air event scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 5.

Plein air refers to painting
outside. En plein air is the French for “in the
open air.” The style became important in the mid 19^th century with
French impressionists such as Claude Monet.

“I think you see colors better,
you get a sense of the atmosphere. When I’m out painting I see the geese going
over. You hear birds in the bushes. You get a better feel for what you’re
painting,” Beam said.

Those sounds have an effect on
what she paints and thinks there’s a link between sight and sound in the
artistic world.

“There are a lot of musicians
who are also artists and vice versa,” said Beam who has a bachelor’s degree in
music, “…and there are a lot of theorists who think that tone colors in music
can be compared to the tones and colors that you paint…If you’re on a city
street and you hear that kind of [traffic] rumbling and sounds and smells of
exhaust, it probably does affect the atmosphere that you paint in the painting.
And atmosphere in your painting is everything. You can’t get that when you’re
not painting on site.”

Painting outside brings weather
into the equation, too. One artist, during last year’s event when it snowed,
had to continually stop what he was doing in order to scrape snow and ice off
his canvas.

Beam said that adds to the
excitement. “You could see snow flakes in the paint…That’s the fun part. You
ask what it is about plein air, that’s what it is. It’s about the unexpected.”

For the Historical Society’s
plein air event—limited to 30 artists—all painting must be done outside during
that Saturday. Canvases will be stamped to signify the work wasn’t done prior
to the event with everything done outside that day, beginning at 8 a.m. Artists
will return to the Barn Visitors’ Center about 3 p.m. to frame their works.

Patrons may purchase tickets
for $20 to get into the barn for a meet and greet with the artists and to
preview the exhibit beginning at 5 p.m. The $20 admission will be applied to a
purchase. At 6 p.m. the general public will be admitted for a $5 fee.
Refreshments will be served, Beam said. She added that 20 percent of the
purchase price is tax deductible and only 40 preview party tickets are
available.

“Our show remains one of the
purist [plein air events] because you paint that day and there’s no opportunity
for people to go home and fix it two days later in the studio,” Beam said. “The
paintings are still wet. That’s the charm. It’s the beauty. There ‘s a look to
that kind of painting that’s very different.”

She added that it’s fitting for
Historical Society to be hosting such an event because the paintings act as a
record of what Chadds Ford was, how it looked, on that given day.