It’s not often one finds an artist painting out in the wild — except when that artist is Carlene Dingman Atwater.

Much of Atwater’s work is done en plein air. That is, instead of painting in a studio using a photograph as inspiration, she works in the great outdoors, painting what she can see around her.

Artists used to have to mix their own paints and grind their own pigments. In the 19th century, French Impressionists started the plein air movement, thanks to the innovation of putting oil paints in tubes.

“So I go on-site and stand there in the heat, with the ticks,” she said, “and paint whatever’s there in front of me.”

She’ll paint in the heat, the rain, the snow; the elements don’t seem to phase her.

Atwater said she often goes back to the same spots, the evidence of which can be seen in her exhibition at the Fort Madison Area Art Association gallery, on display through the month of February.

There are multiple paintings done at Denning Conservation Area, Rodeo Park, Snake River Access.

“You can see a lot more [in person] than from a photograph,” she said.

Atwater said it’s a matter of trying to catch the light and the atmosphere.

“One time I went out to paint and it was a really nice, sunny morning but in the time it took to get to Denning Conservation Area, the clouds had come in,” she said. “And you get that strip of light. But you have to be fast because it changes. And even water, the reflections on the water change. When you capture the atmosphere like that, it’s beautiful. On-site is much better than from a photograph. It doesn’t capture it.”

Atwater attends a lot of competitions, she said.

“What they do at a competition is they give you your panel. You’ve got to have it stamped so nobody cheats,” she said. “So in 2018, I saved one panel… and I kept holding this one back and stamping it and stamping it.”

That particular piece, one of the paintings done at Denning Conservation Area, had upwards of 10 stamps.

When going to a location and painting en plaine air, it creates a memory, Atwater said.

“I can tell you stories about a lot of these. You meet a lot of people out there in the woods. Bird watchers, fishermen,” she said. “One young girl, it was like August, what they call Indian Summer when it gets warm all of a sudden, she was out taking her canoe out and I took a couple pictures of her and made a couple paintings of that and talked to her. You meet a lot of people; it’s fun.”

The first plein air competition she did was in Iowa City.

“I found it through an email, that was before you could find a lot of these on the internet. They said ‘downtown Iowa City,’” she said. “So I got there and it was across from the pedestrian mall. I was painting with all these people coming by and painting people and pictures. Then I found out later I could have gone to the park nearby. But I wanted to do it.”

Atwater frequently uses oil paints for plein air, so she can correct things. She also had some watercolor paintings, and even a pastel one, set at Lacey-Keosaqua Park.

Atwater said she wanted to be an artist from first grade on.

“We had first and second grade in the same room and the teacher didn’t have art experience. She had us all paint rabbits,” she said. “I had this friend — I was kind of an introvert — she said ‘if you paint my rabbit, I’ll play with you at recess.’ So I painted her rabbit. The teacher was so impressed, she showed it to the second grade, ‘see how nice she painted the rabbit,’ They all said ‘no she didn’t paint it’ I got in trouble for that one.”

That hasn’t stopped her from painting rabbits. Or sheep or horses or other animals

Drawing is a good basis for plein air art. Color theory is an important element as well. Atwater has taken workshops for years. At one, she was urged to add a shade of green to a person’s shadow.

She pointed out the greens of forest foliage in the pastel piece were more than just green – there were yellows and blues as well.

Atwater has been involved with the Fort Madison Area Art Association for a long time, she said.

“It’s helped me,” she said. “ I got this far with the support of a lot of the artists in the area.”