The history of artists painting in gardens has produced some of the masterworks of Western art — not the least of which are the paintings of the great French Impressionist Claude Monet, who planted his beautiful gardens at Giverny to provide subjects for his canvases. In California, the history of artists painting in natural landscape grew greatly with the plein air movement of the early 20th century which, locally, produced notable artists such as Alfred Mitchell, Maurice Braun, Charles Fries and Carolus Verhaeren. With its annual tradition of “artists in the gardens,” the La Jolla Historical Society’s Secret Garden Tour continues arts’ time-honored fascination with outdoor light and its visual dance with color and plant and floral subject matter. This year for the May 15 garden tour, artist Dot Renshaw has assembled a team of 11 painters who will occupy settings in each of the gardens and record their impressions on canvas in oils, watercolors and acrylics. Besides Renshaw, who paints in pastels and oils, the artists are Sandy White, Patricia Jasper, Roger Helgar, Diane Estrada, Jane Fletcher, Faye Richert, Lynn Shulnik and Carol Shamrock (the latter will bring two art students from La Jolla High School — Alexie Tarakjian and Diana Polyak — to share in the work). During the years,” Renshaw said, “I and my fellow plein air friends have been in glee chasing and capturing the light of the moment in nature we experienced. Details are not essential, just how the light feels on the planes of the scene, temperature and edge quality of the subject in relationship to the atmosphere and depth.” Renshaw began painting 40 years ago on camping trips in the outdoors with her parents and college friends. “I was awestruck by the emotional impact of painting outdoors enveloped by nature and capturing the essence that I saw, felt and smelled,” she said. Specifically, she calls herself an “environmental plein air painter” since her primary concern is to capture disappearing scenes in the California environment due to development and changes in the climate — similar to the original movement of the plein air painters of 100 years ago who began to record the outdoors disappearing because of the Industrial Revolution. The first venturing into the American wilderness formed the Hudson River Valley school of artists. A similar group formed in California between 1890 and 1930. Besides the aforementioned Mitchell, Braun, Fries and Verhaeren, notable artists included Edgar Payne, Guy Rose and Franz Biscoff. Their work remains highly collectible today. The Secret Garden Tour’s plein air paintings are available for purchase similar to past years. Also, as in previous tours presented by the La Jolla Historical Society, a committee will select one piece of art to be featured on the following year’s poster. For information, visit www.lajollahistory.org or call (858) 459-5335. — Carol Olten is the historian at the La Jolla Historical Society. Her Reflections column runs monthly in La Jolla Village News.