Plein and Simple

by Joe Giovannetti

One summer morning, an ominous sky over Montrose Point spelled potential trouble for School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) students in an outdoor painting class. It was going to rain.

But the weather didn’t stop them. The students grabbed their portable easels, traversed to the foggy site, and began to sketch. Suddenly, the sky lifted. As the sunlight transformed the scene, their sketches evolved—and so did they.

Welcome to a day in the life of En Plein Air, an Adult Continuing Studies course taught by Michelle Kogan (BFA 1983). Though 2025 marks Kogan’s third year leading this class, it’s her 20th year teaching the art of plein air—a French expression referring to painting in the “open air.”

“I have always had this connection with nature,” Kogan said. At SAIC, she’s passing on her love for the outdoors onto artists of all ages.

Approximately 14 students—representing a wide range of life stages and skill levels—take the always-full course each summer. Kogan recalls one 70-year-old student who drove 135 miles from Champaign, Illinois, to Chicago every Sunday to attend class alongside fellow painters as young as recent college graduates.

“There’s a bond and mutual respect that builds, so they can exchange and learn from one another,” she said. “I like to see how far the beginners advance when they’re around others.”

To aid the novice painters, Kogan focuses on the fundamentals; color wheels, composition, light, and perspective are common talking points in her pedagogy. She encourages students to start small using thumbnail sketches: mini outlines that help artists make preliminary discoveries about shapes and palettes.

Over 10 weeks, the students travel to three different Chicago locations: Millennium Park’s Lurie Garden, the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, and Lincoln Park’s Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool—Kogan’s favorite “little gem in the city,” teeming with herons, turtles, and dragonflies, amongst other colorful fauna. In cases of interfering weather conditions, they may visit the Garfield Park Conservatory.

In each location, the students work on one to three paintings in their chosen medium of oil, acrylic, or watercolor. In the final meeting, they come together to share their new portfolios and celebrate each other’s progress.

Kogan likens plein air painting to the New York Happenings in the 1960s: “It’s an evolving event. The lighting is going to change. The environment is going to change,” she said. “It’s very inspiring to be out there.”

When asked why she continues to teach outdoor painting, Kogan stresses the importance of the artist’s connection to the environment.

“We can’t exist without nature,” she said. “It’s how we get our food source, our water, our air—everything. It’s a part of us.” ■