Artists take to the great outdoors for the Capital Plein Air Festival

A new festival is encouraging more artists to ditch the studio and to seek inspiration in the Australian landscape.

Transcript

00:00With a canvas strapped to her back, Sophie Baker cuts an unusual figure in the Canberra

00:10bush. She's left behind a career in science to paint full time.

00:15I don't have a studio. This is my studio. This is my new office. Basically I pack my

00:23painting things onto my bike and I cycle out into the bush and I paint what I see.

00:28The tradition of plein air painting spans centuries but making art in the elements comes with

00:34challenges. I paint in pouring rain, I paint in light misty rain but I'm also not afraid

00:41of painting in a heat wave. The finished product, an ode to Australia's flora and fauna.

00:46As a scientist I know so much about what's at risk and I see the pressures of the climate

00:54on the plants and I work that into my paintings.

00:58She's not alone in finding inspiration in the fresh air. More than a hundred artists

01:04from across the country are taking part in Canberra's new outdoor painting festival, Capital

01:09Plein Air.

01:10I used to be a studio painter and you'd be stuck in there telling yourself how good

01:14you were but when you get outside you're actually amongst people and amongst nature and it's

01:21forever changing. The festival is only the second of its kind in Australia. Organisers hope it'll

01:27become a mainstay on Canberra's cultural calendar encouraging artists of all experience levels

01:33to embrace the open air. Veteran landscape painter Warwick Fuller is the festival's special

01:39guest. He's been the official tour artist for King Charles. Over the four tours he's collected

01:4721 of my paintings so that's been an amazing thing.

01:51Even if the works don't end up on royal walls, artists say plein air painting is about the

01:57experience. If you spend three hours painting in the studio and you don't like what you painted

02:02it's a bit of a bummer but here it's been three hours outside with friends.

02:06So let's go for a moment.

02:08What is that?

02:09What is that?

02:10Basically we have super horrible, beautifulrey hair is an uniqueness, but?

02:13Hey sensei has a place left a square in Japan like anybody in Japan.

02:16I just want to stand there as well.

02:19They have never seen what we've seen about this city Сп 1988.

02:21I just want to get to think about here and give you some Sentra歌.

02:23I hear what you are about here and I'm actually dying to find.

02:26Waitом and you think about this interact with me and I talk to friends with multiple