Virginia Pendergrass, Sandra Brugh Moore and Sahar Fakhoury will show new fall landscape paintings at their French Broad Artists studio in the River Arts District in September.

All three artists paint plein air (outdoors in the open air) landscapes in beautiful Western North Carolina. Pendergrass and Fakhoury work in oil, and Moore primarily in water media. Their new works capture the beautiful warm colors of autumn very differently, and not just due to medium.

Pendergrass comments, “Sandra and I paint with a plein air group called Mixed Nuts. Based on our paintings, I have often marveled that we were in the same location. I think a painting is a reflection of the artist’s eye, not the photographic reality of the scene. Artists’ feelings generated by memories and life experiences affect what is ‘seen’ by the artist and therefore emphasized, omitted or distorted in a painting.”

All three agree that “painting plein air on a beautiful fall day is the best. The weather is cool, the colors are brilliant, and of course a picnic lunch is always fun.”  But plein air painting is not for the faint of heart.

At Slick Rock Lake, Moore says, “Originally I wanted to paint more of the lake but the strong autumn winds encouraged me to find an area protected from the wind but in the warming sunshine. The values and colors worked, so the ‘feel’ of the day happened on the canvas.”

The essence of plein air painting is capturing a “sense of place.” Pendergrass moved to North Carolina from Florida, where bright color and brilliant sunshine dominate. Gradually, she recognized the atmospheric beauty of Western North Carolina days with rain, low light in morning and evening, fog, and quiet clouds.

She explains, “Because I react strongly to color, my early fall paintings in North Carolina were shock waves of hot, saturated colors. I have gradually shifted toward muted colors with bright accents and less contrast in shadows and light, which to me are more reflective of the sense of place in Western North Carolina. ‘Autumn Pond’ has accents of color within an overall tonal quality, which expresses my experience on that quiet day at Beaver Lake.”

Fakhoury has a different approach. She says, “I start paintings in plein air for shapes and color, and finish them in the studio, away from outdoor distractions, to develop my concept. The French Broad River and Blue Ridge Parkway are favorite painting spots. Long shadows and reflections in the water attract me.”

If You Go: New fall landscapes, on display September 1-30, 2015, Thursdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The French Broad Artists Studio, 191 Lyman St. (Riverview Station) in the River Arts District. Directions at riverviewstation.com.