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Artists take to the great outdoors for the Capital Plein Air Festival
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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4/27/2025
A new festival is encouraging more artists to ditch the studio and to seek inspiration in the Australian landscape.
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Transcript
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00:00
With a canvas strapped to her back, Sophie Baker cuts an unusual figure in the Canberra
00:10
bush. She's left behind a career in science to paint full time.
00:15
I don't have a studio. This is my studio. This is my new office. Basically I pack my
00:23
painting things onto my bike and I cycle out into the bush and I paint what I see.
00:28
The tradition of plein air painting spans centuries but making art in the elements comes with
00:34
challenges. I paint in pouring rain, I paint in light misty rain but I'm also not afraid
00:41
of painting in a heat wave. The finished product, an ode to Australia's flora and fauna.
00:46
As a scientist I know so much about what's at risk and I see the pressures of the climate
00:54
on the plants and I work that into my paintings.
00:58
She's not alone in finding inspiration in the fresh air. More than a hundred artists
01:04
from across the country are taking part in Canberra's new outdoor painting festival, Capital
01:09
Plein Air.
01:10
I used to be a studio painter and you'd be stuck in there telling yourself how good
01:14
you were but when you get outside you're actually amongst people and amongst nature and it's
01:21
forever changing. The festival is only the second of its kind in Australia. Organisers hope it'll
01:27
become a mainstay on Canberra's cultural calendar encouraging artists of all experience levels
01:33
to embrace the open air. Veteran landscape painter Warwick Fuller is the festival's special
01:39
guest. He's been the official tour artist for King Charles. Over the four tours he's collected
01:47
21 of my paintings so that's been an amazing thing.
01:51
Even if the works don't end up on royal walls, artists say plein air painting is about the
01:57
experience. If you spend three hours painting in the studio and you don't like what you painted
02:02
it's a bit of a bummer but here it's been three hours outside with friends.
02:06
So let's go for a moment.
02:08
What is that?
02:09
What is that?
02:10
Basically we have super horrible, beautifulrey hair is an uniqueness, but?
02:13
Hey sensei has a place left a square in Japan like anybody in Japan.
02:16
I just want to stand there as well.
02:19
They have never seen what we've seen about this city Сп 1988.
02:21
I just want to get to think about here and give you some SentraæŒ.
02:23
I hear what you are about here and I'm actually dying to find.
02:26
Waitом and you think about this interact with me and I talk to friends with multiple
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