Plein Air on the Yellowstone 2025
Parks Reece took part in this year’s Livingston Center for Art and Culture’s festival, Plein Air on the Yellowstone. He hosted the event’s Welcome BBQ host and won an award this year! It was a busy week of painting, talking with folks about art, and the outdoors.
Parks and his dog, Roscoe
Plein Air painting is a type of painting that requires the artists to be painting outside, and to be painting the subject from life. It began in 1800s France, largely thanks to the industrial revolution producing and selling paint tubes. Much like lithography, Parks Reece enjoys this medium derived from French influence. Up until the paint tube innovation, painters were required to mix and make their own paints in their studios. It was incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to paint outside of the studio.
The painting genre is mostly associated with the painters who made it popular - the impressionists. These painters were Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas, just to name a few. Plein Air is still a thriving art movement and has gained popularity in the more scenic parts of the United States. The Livingston Center for Art and Culture’s event, Plein Air on the Yellowstone, has been going strong for almost 25 years. Parks has been participating in this event for the past 13 years!
“I just painted in my 13th Livingston Center for Art and Culture’s Plein Air Painting on the Yellowstone. Landscape painting is not quite my cup of tea. So, I find weird outdoor scenes to match my peculiar perception of the natural world, and I have a blast.
Every once in a while I win one!”
While Parks Reece does not define himself as a plein air artist, he deeply enjoys participating in this wonderful art festival. He views it as an excellent way to explore in his art and enjoy the landscape he calls ‘home.’ The annual plein air practice is another avenue to experiment with his subject matter and overall painting practice. It is also a great way meet other artists in the Montana community. It is always a joy to see how his studio practice and plein air paintings interact with each other.
Parks was also fortunate enough to place a painting in this year’s judged event. The painting below received ‘Best Fauna’ in the show.
Award Winning Painting, Bumper Crop of Cherries: Everybody’s Happy
Plein Air on the Yellowstone is a week long event. Artists come in from all over Montana, and the greater United States, for this festival. The painters may paint as many paintings as they like during this one specific week, but they may only submit up to two paintings to be judged for prizes and awards. Parks even played with night and sunset painting, a notoriously difficult time to paint outside!
Below is Parks pictured with a many of the other participating artists. Parks was also this year’s welcome BBQ host, so he was busy this past weelk!
Parks and the 34 other participating plein air artists