Views of Balboa Park

This display highlights a few of the leading artists who have painted outdoors here in Balboa Park. 

The availability of oil paint in tubes from 1841 replaced the necessity of pig bladders and glass to transport paint, and enabled artists to leave their studios and paint in the surrounding parks or countryside.  In particular, artists became more interested in how changing daylight could be interpreted, and in capturing a moment in time with quick brushstrokes.  Impressionism, as it developed in France, rapidly had many followers in the United States, contributing to the California Plein Air scene.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.