Sometimes paintings convey the sense of the work and careful craft that have gone into their execution; at other times they can reflect other aspects of the painter’s art. Ed Terpening’s paintings just look like fun to me.

His big, juicy brushtrokes, laden with color and filled with the texture of bristles, look like they are laid down in gleeful abandon, reveling in the act of painting en plein air (on location in a single session). Look at those chunky strokes of color in the detail above, right, that resolve nicely into the pattern of sunlight on the wall when you pull back.

I don’t know if he actually paints rapidly, some plein air painters paint slowly and deliberately (Monet, for example, that most iconic of plein air painters, is quoted as saying that he “paints quite slowly”) but there has to be a certain element of speed in all outdoor on location painting, just from the limitations of time and changing light.

Turpening is a California painter, working in the strong traditions of the California school of plein air paintings, which, like “Pennsylvania Impressionism” is a genre in itself within the wider range of painterly styles that get put in the broad (and probably mislabeled) category of “impressionism”.

Turpening maintains a blog called Life, Plein Air, in which he chronicles his painting excursions, talks about his subjects, approach and color choices, and sometimes posts photographs of his painting setup on location along with images of the finished painting. He has been writing the blog since June of 2005, a bit longer than most.

He also has a web site, with galleries of his work sorted into landscapes, seascapes and miscellany.