Getting the most from PLEIN EIRE membership

Get the most out of your PLEIN EIRE membership.Join in and contribute to articles and discussions as often as you can. It is only by interacting and sharing with others that you will benefit from them.

Initially, you should explore the Help link found at the foot of every page. If that does not offer a remedy, contact an administrator with your query.

E-mail Plein Eire Administrator if you need help with this.

What can you do on PLEIN EIRE website?

1. Create a personal web page.

Don't have a personal website where friends and buyers can see your paintings?

Or perhaps you do and want to promote it more?

Now you can on Plein Eire.

You can customise the look of your personal profile page to to reflect your style and personality. Add photos, videos and a personal profile online. If you already have a blog or another website, you can add a link to Plein Eire and vice versa.

As one of the chief aims of this site is to promote artists meeting up in quiet places to paint, it is important that your profile photo should be a photo or a recognisable portrait of you. It need not be a close-up or head-on but you should be recognisable in it. This is to put all members at ease when meeting other members in out-of-the-way places and to aid recognition among a group of people. Please join your fellow members who have done so by complying with this request.

Please Note, your profile photo should NOT be a photo of the cat or of one of your paintings or anything else.

Note: Plein Eire Administrator uses an avatar because it is a shared role. Each of the administrators also has a membership page with a personal photograph on it.

More on Making the Most of your Profile Page

2. Post photos of you artwork online.

Share your images online for encouragement and to promote your work. On the left of your profile page is a menu. Click the 'Gallery' tab or click 'Artwork' on your profile page to allow you to upload photos of your paintings. If you have photo editor software, resize your photo to 750 pixels width. This is optimal size for speed of upload. Give the Title, Size and Medium of each artwork. Once uploaded, your images can be organised into 'Albums' by year, a particular painting holiday  or some other theme. Artwork should be cropped to show no frame and should be well-lit and care taken to photograph it head-on without distortion. Tips on photographing artwork here.

Note: As this is a site for plein air painting, only plein air paintings made outdoors on location may be uploaded. 'Artwork' must not be used for snaps of artists at work, for paintings of the family pet, still-lifes, nudes or landscapes from photographs or imagination.

We rely on trust that members abide by these rules.  Any obvious deviation will be deleted without further notice.

For more tips on posting artwork online, click here.

3. Create a Group Page

Start a group page on Plein Eire site for your art group, circle of artist friends such as 'Poolbeg Pastel Painters' or 'Leinster Lino-Printers' etc. Keep in touch with individual members or with the whole group at the touch of a button. A Group Page initiator can decide what features it will have and whether anyone can join or only an approved membership. It is your group's own space within Plein Eire.

4. Discover Opportunities.

Find out about paintouts with other artists inyour area. Learn about workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions related to outdoor painting. Keep in touch with what others are doing and get ideas and information on good places to visit for painting. Recommend an artist who gave an inspirational workshop etc. Events is one of the best places to find out what is happening or to promote a plein air event.

As stated above, the event must relate to outdoor painting or it is on the wrong site and will be removed. 

When posting an event, you are required to fill in the dates it begins and ends. Your event will then move up the site's calendar list chronologically, as earlier events finish. However, an exhibition can occupy the prominent top space for perhaps 3 or 4 weeks, to the detriment of other, shorter events. Therefore, when posting an exhibition, you are asked to post the opening as one event and the closing date as another. This will ensure that exhibitions remain in view but do not occupy the top spot for several weeks.

5. Discuss.

Ask questions, make new friends, share information, invite comment and exchange views about plein air painting on Forum. Exchange outgrown pochades and easels, second-hand books and DVDs. This is the Plein Eire coffee-shop (without the coffee and the cream buns).

6. Blogs

Blogs, accessed from your personal page menu, are for related articles by members. Tell us about your latest paintout and insert a photograph and perhaps a link to an album of snaps on Pix.ie. You can cover a broader range of topics and images in a Blog post.

7. New to Plein Eire? 

See our other Notes pages (FAQs, User Guidelines, Plein Air Tips etc. Related Links) for helpful information to get the most out of the site. To get started, you might like to introduce yourself on the Forum for new members here.

8. Finding stuff.

There is a search facility under 'Artists' which lets you not only find artists by name but also search for all artists in a particular county or city.

To find content you may have come across and now you can't find it again, you can use Google Search by typing in the search bar:

site: pleineire.com "search terms"

Type any phrase or term used in the content you are trying to locate in the quotation marks (instead of 'search terms') and Google will help you find it by searching just this website. Of course, you can use this facility for other websites, too.

Use of this Site

Plein Eire is for use as a community site. Galleries or commercial interests may not become members or promote their businesses via members' areas. Currently, members may not include prices but if a sales contact is made via the site, we will be glad to have facilitated it. Exhibitions may be promoted as 'Events' only if they consist chiefly of plein air work. Similarly, workshops, demonstrations and courses may only be promoted if they are deemed to be of general interest to the membership.

However, we are aware galleries and buyers do view content on Plein Eire and therefore all photographs you post should be of good standard in your own interest of other members. Amateur and professionals artists are equal members of this site but for this reason, a high standard of presentation is required of every member.

If these guidelines are abused or ignored it dilutes the core purpose of this plein air site, it may be necessary to remove such material. The site administrator reserves the right to do so without further notice. If in doubt about posting or to advertise a commercial enterprise, contact the Site Administrator. 

NB: This section: 'Notes and Tips'  contains pages which are visible only to members.