Interview With Plein Air Painter Beth Cole

We were instantly struck by the movement and emotion in Beth Cole's paintings. Since the first time we saw her work in Instagram, we've been waiting for the right time to invite her to the homestead to teach. We're honored to have her join us for a weekend in the summer of 2025. Here are a few questions we asked the artist about her work and her process.

Please tell us a lit­tle about how you got start­ed as an artist, es­pe­cial­ly as a plein air painter...

My first art love was pi­ano which has been with me from a young age. In my mind paint­ing and mu­sic are con­nect­ed. I al­ways told my hus­band “when I get old­er I want to paint.” At the emp­ty nest stage I knew it was time. My only re­gret is not start­ing soon­er, I ab­so­lute­ly love it. I start­ed with stu­dio paint­ing but as I stud­ied and grew, I be­gan to un­der­stand the best teacher is na­ture. Ob­serv­ing its beau­ty first hand has taught me a lot and I am a life long stu­dent of it and paint­ing in gen­er­al.

Do you have any spe­cial train­ing or tech­ni­cal ex­pe­ri­ence in the arts

Be­fore I be­gan paint­ing I owned a web de­sign com­pa­ny which gave me train­ing in graph­ic de­sign through Il­lus­tra­tor and Phot­oshop class­es and ex­pe­ri­ence. I loved it. My clients were awe­some and I was very busy. Af­ter about fif­teen years it was time to push back from the com­put­er and pick up a paint­brush.

I’m so glad I did. I have stud­ied with many tal­ent­ed and gener­ous artists, both on­line and in per­son. I al­ways con­sid­er my­self a stu­dent as I trav­el this jour­ney of art and con­tin­ue to learn!

What is your pre­ferred medi­um and why?

I have tried all the things... wa­ter­col­or, pas­tel, acrylic, char­coal and fi­nal­ly oil. I love work­ing in oil be­cause it is slow dry­ing and gives me time to change my mind! Ha. I also love its lay­er­ing and tex­ture ca­pa­bil­i­ties.

Can you talk us through your process of cre­at­ing a new work? Do you start from sketch­es or some oth­er in­spi­ra­tion?

I like to start with an idea that I have seen out­side and paint­ed plein air, or some­thing that has caught my eye and I cap­tured with a pho­to. I will take the idea and do a small thumb­nail sketch with mark­ers to see the big shapes and find the best com­po­si­tion. Some­times I will also do a pen­cil sketch.

From there I will do a small col­or study to try it out. If I like it, I will take it to a larg­er ver­sion. If not, I might try an­oth­er col­or study or even go back to the thumb­nail stage and try again. It is all a process. 

Which artists are cur­rent­ly in­flu­enc­ing your work or what are you turn­ing to for in­spi­ra­tion?

In ad­di­tion to go­ing out­side for in­spi­ra­tion, I use Pin­ter­est. I have a "Mas­ter Artist" board and "In­spir­ing Land­scapes" board, among many oth­ers. I turn to these as well as books from my “li­brary” to spark ideas or help with problem solv­ing.

Some of my fa­vorite mas­ter artists are Cor­nelis Vree­den­burgh, William Dunn Knox, JJ Hilder, Chauncey Ry­der, Emil Carl­son. Liv­ing mas­ters I ad­mire great­ly are T. Allen Law­son and Clyde As­pe­vig.

What is your ap­proach to tak­ing the “chaos” of the nat­ur­al world and transform­ing it into some­thing peace­ful and calm?

I use thumb­nail sketch­es to sim­pli­fy the scene into 4-5 big shapes. Sometimes I move things I see into the sketch but usu­al­ly I take things out. I try to use line and move­ment to lead the eye to the fo­cal point.

As far as the “feel” of peace­ful­ness and calm, that might come from the col­or pal­ette I use which is to­ward the tonal­ist, kind of sub­dued col­ors. I always like to cre­ate depth and dis­tance - and that leads to a peace­ful feel­ing as well.

What is your process for choos­ing a col­or pal­ette? Does this change or is your pal­ette con­sis­tent across a body of work?

I choose the pal­ette based on the idea I am go­ing for. If the in­spi­ra­tion had mid day light­ing, for ex­am­ple, I might change the time of day to ear­ly morn­ing and adjust and light and shad­ow ac­cord­ing­ly. It just de­pends on what mood I am going for with the paint­ing.

How do you know when a piece of work is ‘fin­ished’?

That is the mil­lion dol­lar ques­tion! Some­times I have called a paint­ing done, and down the road re­al­ized it was not fin­ished and made ad­justments that re­al­ly made it bet­ter.

It works best if I can let a paint­ing sit for at least two weeks or a month and look at it then. Of­ten I will be able to see what I need to do next and that is very helpful. When I have giv­en the paint­ing ad­e­quate time to come into it­self, and enough at­ten­tion to the finish­ing touch­es, I will call it done.

What draws you into the world to paint plein air vs. in a stu­dio?

I paint both ways, plein air and in the stu­dio. I like to paint out­side to get ideas and to ob­serve col­ors, shapes, light, shad­ow, etc. We can al­ways work from pho­tos, but a pho­to­graph doesn’t give the same in­for­ma­tion you can gath­er from di­rect ob­ser­va­tion. Plus fresh air is good for body, mind and spir­it. I love be­ing in the nat­ur­al world, I be­lieve our Cre­ator’s col­or pal­ette is al­ways per­fect and it is a joy to be­hold.

What has paint­ing land­scapes as your sub­ject taught you about your­self?

Oh wow, easy an­swer... how much I have to learn! How much I don’t know! I will al­ways be a stu­dent of the land­scape and paint­ing. That is one thing I love about it, the chal­lenge of learn­ing more and im­prov­ing. It is at once frus­trat­ing and thrilling.

What ad­vice would you give some­one new to paint­ing who is in­tim­i­dat­ed to start the process?

Be gen­tle with your­self. You can’t get up one morn­ing and run a marathon, right? Or play Clair de Lune the first time you sit at the pi­ano. In the same way, learn­ing to paint re­quires time and pa­tience with your­self. One of the most help­ful prac­tices for me is to show up con­sis­tent­ly. Do­ing the work has been so valu­able. Last­ly, keep your eyes on your goals and the vi­sion you hold for your work. “Com­par­i­son is the thief of joy." -Theo­dore Roo­sevelt.

Are you cur­rent­ly ex­hibit­ing your work? If so where can we see more of it?

My work is cur­rent­ly avail­able on my web­site at beth­coleart.­com, where I post a yearly show, and from my stu­dio gallery in Mer­na, NE.

Any fu­ture projects on the hori­zon you’re ex­cit­ed about?

One project is my paint­ing re­treat, The Gen­tle Land­scape, host­ed by Hunter Moon Home­stead. Reg­is­tra­tion is open and you are in­vit­ed!

Nebraska-based artist, Beth Cole, creates contemporary landscape paintings in oil. Her work centers on fields, trees, streams and buildings, and the effects of atmosphere and light upon them.

She has studied with many generous and accomplished painters including Jay Moore, Dave Santillanes, and Scott Christensen. Prior to painting, her degree in Human Services Administration allowed her to work with people in a variety of ways including twenty years as a small business owner serving clients in her web/graphic design company. Her background in small business influenced her development as a full time painter.

Beth has exhibited widely in her home state including Museum of Nebraska Art events and the Nebraska Biennial Exhibition hosted by Omaha’s Gallery 1516. Additional group shows include Colorado, Texas, and Wisconsin.

"When I step into the landscape as a painter, I see before me the chaos of nature. If I were to include everything in my painting, it would be overwhelming. My approach is to simplify what I see, transform chaos into order if you will, and create a peaceful and calming piece of art.

My background in piano from a young age, is what led me to painting, and it continues to inform all of my work. Piano taught me when to use a delicate touch and when to use speed and force. In the same way, my painting gestures and brushstrokes communicate a certain energy or calmness, and my paint mixing and application express mood and atmosphere, and may even allude to the ethereal."