reads aloud excerpts of Rilke, Annie Dillard, or Mary Oliver. Plein Air Poetry is an outlet for the organic intermingling of their literary and visual art. Working out of the Cincinnati area, they are deeply inspired by the Ohio River and the Kentucky landscape stretching out below it, where they can trace their family roots on both sides. Words from Alexandra McIntosh and paintings by Brad Davis serve as dispatches from their search for the sublime, created mostly en plein air in the Impressionist tradition.
Plein Air Poetry is a collaborative project pairing visual art and literature, inspired by the Impressionist practice of working en plein air, or “in the open air." Created by husband and wife team Brad Davis and Alexandra McIntosh, the project grew out of many hours spent outside discussing literature and art history while Brad paints “en plein air,” and Alexandra writes in her journal or
Sponsored by Originary Arts Initiative and Urban Appalachian Community Coalition
Alexandra McIntosh’s writing explores memory, both personal and communal, and its connection to the natural world. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University as well as her MA in English from Northern Kentucky University. Her debut book of poetry, Bowlfuls of Blue, is available from Assure Press.
Brad Davis is an internationally exhibited oil painter with an an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work aims to uncover and uplift the discarded and overlooked within his urban surroundings. Through sensitive and careful construction, he utilizes methods of traditional oil painting and an aesthetic pulling from American painters such as John Sloan, Edward Hopper, and Thomas Eakins.
