Alla Prima Everglades
By Kevin Hyde
Alla prima Italian for "the first time" or "at once," is a method of oil painting in which the artist does not build with layers but tries to achieve desired effects in the first application of paint. It's what the 19th century Impressionists did when they went on location to capture the environment--and the moment--in one sitting.
In other words, the painter can "let loose," says Alex Schmitz, a junior art major in the University of Louisville's Allen R. Hite Art Institute. He along with four other advanced painting students recently returned from a weeklong painting trip to the Florida Everglades to study alla prima.
 Center photo, student travelers were (from left) Rachel Salansky, JaBani Bennett, Douglas Turner, Karla Curry and Schmitz. |
"You don't have to worry about anything but the act of painting itself," continues Schmitz, a Fort Wright, Ky., native who holds the Kenady Lynne Hendershot Scholarship, a four-year, full-tuition art scholarship awarded each year to a promising Kentucky high school graduate. "It's getting the paint on the canvas in a quick, efficient manner. These paintings are pretty much a one-shot thing."
"It's more about defining the whites and darks of the landscape," adds senior Karla Curry.
Gabrielle Mayer, an assistant art professor at U of L, says teaching alla prima, or plein air (French for "open air"), painting is difficult in the classroom where the "spontaneity and freshness of working outdoors" is lost.
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"The students don't get the sense of why we're doing it because they don't have to deal with weather conditions, the shadows changing and other important factors," Mayer says. "The paintings have more of the impression of the landscape and so living in the landscape helps that impression. Working from photographs is never as immediate for the viewer."
That's why Mayer decided to take the painting group to Florida using an undergraduate education teaching improvement grant from the College of Arts and Sciences and Hite Art Institute student development funds. Mayer, who as an artist is represented by Trudy Labell Gallery in Naples, Fla., spends a lot of time in the state doing research at the state parks. The students worked, studied and camped in Suwannee River, Little Manatee Springs and Collier-Seminole state parks as well as Big Cypress National Preserve.
"They each did three or four paintings," Mayer says. "It was fun. Some of them had never camped before. They felt really empowered by the time they came back."
Curry, a Campbellsville, Ky., native, was one of the first-time campers.
"The experience was really great. I would recommend camping to anyone," she laughs. "I was kind of doubtful--you know, the bugs and things. But it was fun. The mosquitoes didn't like me that much though."
But Curry says the most gratifying part of the trip was the camaraderie--"the growing together with my classmates. Some I didn't know as well as others."
"I guess we'll always have the Everglades."
