Outdoor Painting Meetups (Plein Air)
Paint outside, badly, together. Somehow it's always beautiful.
Plein air painting means painting outdoors from life. Meetup groups make it social — you pick a scenic spot, set up side by side, and paint the same view in wildly different styles. Watercolors are the easiest to carry, but some people bring full easels. The goal is the experience, not the masterpiece.
How to start
- 1Search for plein air or outdoor painting groups on Meetup or Facebook.
- 2Get a small watercolor travel set and a pad of watercolor paper — total cost under $15.
- 3Pick a park or scenic view and just start. Paint what you see, not what you think it should look like.
- 4Time-box your session to 30-60 minutes. Unfinished paintings have their own charm.
What you'll need
- Watercolor travel setEssential~$10
- Watercolor paper padEssential~$5
- Water cup and brushEssential~$3
- Portable stool or blanketNice to have~$10
Where to learn more
Plot twists
Ways to spice this up when the basics get boring.
- Speed painting challenge — finish a painting in 15 minutes or less
- Paint swap — everyone trades their finished painting with someone else
- Same-subject comparison — everyone paints the same tree, compare results
- Nocturne painting — capture a scene at twilight or dusk
The time pressure of changing light keeps you focused. The outdoor environment provides constant sensory input, and the social aspect adds accountability.
The French Impressionists (Monet, Renoir, Pissarro) basically invented plein air painting as a movement because new portable paint tubes were invented in the 1840s.
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