In June 2008, students from Tracy (2), Franklin, McNair, Lincoln (2), St Mary’s, Tokay, and Lodi high schools attended a Plein-air Art Camp at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum. En plein aire in French means painting in the fresh air. Plein-air painting has come to mean representational painting done from real life in nature. It is a national and worldwide movement that has significant roots in San Joaquin County. The Haggin Museum in Stockton has taken an active role in promoting plein-air painting and the Plein-air Art Camp at the Museum was an outgrown of the Plein-air Painters of America exhibition at The Haggin last fall and winter.

The students were assigned full sets of equipment and materials, and received instruction from renowned local artist Gil Dellinger. They did “studio work” in the Museum multi-purpose room, painted outside at locations within the Museum grounds and at the Japanese Garden (in Micke Grove Regional Park), and took a field trip to The Haggin Museum. The students progressed through a series of exercises to develop their skills. For example they started with the development of ability to see and interpret values from photographs, then moved on to interpret the same values from natures, and finally explored how to turn those value studies into accurate color studies.

The San Joaquin County Historical Society plans to offer additional art camps at the Museum in the future.