The field of plein air painting is booming in America today. Now is an ideal moment to explore why it has captivated so many people, where the hotspots are, and what we all can do to encourage and support talented practitioners nationwide.

Peter Trippi is editor-in-chief of Fine Art Connoisseur, the national magazine that serves collectors of contemporary and historical realist art, and president of Projects in 19th-Century Art, a firm he established to pursue research, writing, and curating opportunities. Peter previously directed the Dahesh Museum of Art (New York City), headed development teams at the Brooklyn Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art, and created international touring exhibitions and publications devoted to the 19th-century painters J.W. Waterhouse and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. In 2021, he co-curated the exhibition Artful Stories: Paintings from Historic New England at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Massachusetts. Peter’s most recent curatorial project, the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: A Modern Renaissance, attracted 120,000 visitors to the Museo San Domenico near Bologna, Italy in 2024.