Plein air refers to painting in which setting?

• A. Plein air
• B. Alla prima
• C. Trompe l'oeil
• D. Sgraffito

Answer: (A)

Plein air describes painting outdoors in natural light and open-air settings. The term comes from French and means “in the open air,” emphasizing capturing the environment, light, and atmosphere as they’re observed outside a studio. This distinguishes it from other terms: alla prima refers to completing a painting in one sitting, usually wet-on-wet; trompe l’oeil is a technique to create a convincing optical illusion of reality; and sgraffito is a method of scratching through a surface layer to reveal a contrasting layer beneath. So the setting described by plein air is the outdoors.