Road Trips, Lisette McClung at Archway

Archway Gallery is pleased to present Road Trips, an exhibit featuring new paintings by Lisette McClung—on view August 1 to September 3, 2026. This exhibit brings together a collection of both plein air and studio works—large and small—inspired by her many road trips over the past decade. McClung, is focusing her exhibit on the beauty to be found in outdoors scenes with her exhibit—titled Road Trips—of works painted in plein air or inspired by various locations throughout the world. Plein air—French for “open air”—refers to the practice of painting outdoors on location. As a dedicated plein air painter, McClung has been invited to paint, explore, and photograph on a variety of working ranches, as well as in fields, cities, and villages across the United States and Europe. “Although not every outdoor session results in a finished painting,” explains McClung, “Each one provides valuable color notes and atmospheric observations that enrich my studio work.” McClung’s first exposure to plein air painting occurred during a summer course she took with Parsons School of Design in France and Italy between her junior and senior years at Tulane University. “I spent four weeks painting in various locations around Paris and two weeks in Siena, Italy,” she says. “I immediately fell in love with painting outdoors on location.” McClung didn’t return to plein air painting until 2009, when she received a grant from Fund for Teachers and spent two weeks in Italy painting small villages throughout the province of Umbria. “That experience renewed my passion for observing the landscape directly and responding to it in real time,” she explains. “Plein air painting is an ideal practice for an artist who loves to travel, offering endless opportunities to explore new places through color, light, and shape.”

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