A brush with the great outdoors can be a thrilling experience

FESTIVAL DIARY:On a visit to Wexford's Art in the Open Festival, GEMMA TIPTONmeets some of the Plein Air artists who say doing it outdoors is a full sensory experience

IT’S A DAY of sunny spells and scattered showers (aren’t they all, these days?), but this afternoon, in Wexford, the scattered showers make occasional threats to bring new meaning to the word “watercolour”. I’m at the third annual Art in the Open Festival, and, because this is an Irish summer, no one seems too put out by the odd threatening cloud.

Outdoor (or Plein Air) painters are a hardy lot. Hazards are not only from the weather, but from the inquisitive public – with the most common, and least favourite comments including: Are you painting? What is it? and My auntie’s a painter, she’s very good . . . although, as Plein Air painter and organiser Tony Robinson says: “Your fear of what they’re going to say is always worse than what they do say.”

Dotted around the streets of Wexford town are little clutches of painters at their easels, plus the odd loner, striking out elsewhere for a unique perspective. One of the painting demonstrations, upstairs at Greenacres, ends, and more spill out, freshly inspired. “It’s a full sensory thing,” says Robinson. “Wind, noise, the light’s always changing. Its faster, more rough around the edges. It would freak out some artists, but if you like it, you love it.”

We’ve stopped our wandering for a coffee, and Mary Duffy joins us. “It’s all about being engaged in the moment,” she says. “In my studio, I paint people, but when I’m painting landscape, I want it to be alive – which is mad,” she says. “It’s hard enough for me to paint as it is.” Duffy was born without arms, and paints with her feet. As well as taking part in the festival, she’s also one of the judges this year, as there will be prizes awarded.

Up the road, Oonagh Latchford is painting on perspex with acrylics. “Oils wouldn’t stick,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a complete disaster. This morning’s painting had some rain effects – they made it authentic,” she laughs. Across the road is Tony Hays from Dungarvan. He sings the praises of the Plein Eire website (pleineire.ning.com), which makes it easier for people who have been bitten by the open-air bug to get together.

What exactly is the attraction, I wonder? Everyone I’ve met so far is so passionate about what they’re doing. “It’s the difference between watching a concert on TV and going to see a live band,” says Hays, summing up the energy perfectly.

As we chat, people wander by, some stop and look, some chat. Interruptions aren’t always welcome however. “The ‘what are you painting?’ is always a killer,” says Tom King, who has come to town from Ballyragget. “It’s hardest in the early stages, because it’s in that first 20 minutes that you can win or lose a painting. A trick is to keep a paintbrush clamped between your teeth. “But when I’m not painting and I’m out and about, if I see someone at an easel, I find it very hard not to approach.”

In the Pigyard gallery, people are getting canvases and sheets of paper stamped, and there are a legion of frames of all sorts and sizes, waiting to receive the day’s work.

Next morning, we’re up bright and early, despite a late night that began with a brilliant barbeque at T. Morris’ bar (picturesque enough for a painting itself). We congregate at the 1798 Centre in Enniscorthy. Enniscorthy is celebrating its 1,500th anniversary this year, and part of the town’s events include being immortalised in a hundred different ways by the Art in the Open painters. This morning, I am joining in.

David Diaz, one of Plein Air’s superstars, is here from Annapolis (which is twinned with Wexford). He says the main difference is the light. “If you had that much light in America, the sky would be blue. Here, it can be bright, but still grey.” With this in mind, I set up my easel on the banks of the Slaney, lean up against a tree and squeeze out plenty of black and white. I’m nervous to begin with, it feels much more exposed to be painting out in public, but the sight of nearby artists at their easels makes me appreciate the concept of safety in numbers. I begin to sketch, and then to colour in.

I like painting. Probably because I'm not terribly good at it, I don't feel any pressure to be brilliant. I honestly don't notice two hours passing until a spot of rain falls neatly on my version of the river. I think it adds to the painting (now dubbed Enniscorthy Noon). Art in the Open is the only festival of its kind in Europe, and it's absolutely brilliant.

The exhibition of works, including Enniscorthy Noon, will be on show at Greenacres in Wexford Town until August 7th.