Alley Kocinski is a painter based in Loveland, Colorado working mainly in oils and gouache, both en plein air and in a studio setting. Her current work explores the power of slowing down, connecting more deeply with our surroundings, and experiencing life in analog. Each brushstroke pursues a desire for simplicity and authenticity in an increasingly fast-paced, digital, and artificial world.
Meet the artist
I’m Alley - I’m a third generation artist and have been creating throughout my whole life. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs but am now happy to call Colorado home!
I’ve always been drawn to nature and feel a profound difference in my mind and body when I “unplug”. What a crazy thing it is that we as humans need to “unplug”. My goal through my art is to slow down and form a deeper connection with the world around me.
One of my favorite ways to do that is to paint is plein air - which means painting outdoors from life in the fresh air. I find stillness and awe in the moments when I see light sparkling on water, watch aspen leaves shimmering in the wind, smell pine and wet earth, and feel the simultaneous warm and cool of sunshine and breeze.
My hope is that my work makes you feel that stillness too, like you can pause for a deep breath, and hopefully it will offer a reminder to slow down in your own life.
What is plein air?
The term “plein air” is a french phrase meaning “in open air”. When an artist creates en plein air, it means they are creating outdoors, on location.
Painting from life in nature provides a lot of unique challenges - quickly changing light and shadows, seeing paint colors differently in the sunshine or shade, and being impacted by the elements - heat, cold, rain, wind, even bugs.
In my opinion, these factors give plein air paintings a special, raw feeling. They’re probably not as perfect and polished as studio paintings. But they’ve seen the same view you see when you look at it - they were created there, impacted by the real elements there. That authenticity adds something beautifully intangible to the artwork.
As an artist, my favorite part of plein air painting is the opportunity to just sit and observe an environment for so long. You get to see things that you would miss if you were just passing through. You get to know that place deeply, see wildlife that only ventures out in the stillness, and form a connection between environment, artist, and artwork that can’t be recreated anywhere else.
I paint both plein air and in a studio setting, and the observations from my plein air work provide deeper insight into my studio work as well.