Nocturnal Plein Air Oil Painting Workshop on Enders Island
Nocturnal Plein Air Oil Painting Workshop on Enders Island invites artists to experience painting under a full moon on Friday, August 28, during a three-hour outdoor painting class led by professional artist and illustrator Dan DeLouise.
The workshop begins at 7 p.m., just as daylight starts slipping away. Participants will begin with preliminary sketches before tackling something painters don’t often get to practice outdoors: capturing a landscape as twilight becomes darkness.
The $100 workshop is open to artists of all skill levels.
Painting When the Light Disappears
Plein air painting usually comes with a race against the clock.
Shadows move. Colors change. The sun keeps going whether the painter is ready or not.
At night, the problem becomes something else entirely.
Participants will study the changing tones of twilight before working with the combination of natural and artificial light that emerges after dark. DeLouise will help artists translate those nighttime colors, shadows and illuminated areas onto canvas while providing individual instruction throughout the evening.
The workshop takes place behind Enders Island’s Main House, giving painters the island’s coastal landscape as their subject.
Meet Instructor Dan DeLouise
Dan DeLouise brings more than 25 years of professional painting experience to the workshop.
A Syracuse University graduate and scholarship recipient, DeLouise began his professional career in New York City as a commercial illustrator. His illustration work appeared nationally and internationally before his career expanded further into fine art and painting.
For this workshop, that experience is applied to a particularly tricky subject.
It’s one thing to paint a tree, building or shoreline in daylight. It’s another to decide what color those same objects become when they’re illuminated by moonlight, distant artificial light and the last traces of dusk.
An Island Made for Plein Air Painting
Enders Island provides an unusual outdoor studio.
The small island sits off Mason’s Island in Mystic, surrounded by Fishers Island Sound and connected to shore by a narrow causeway. Its combination of water, gardens, stonework and historic architecture has made plein air painting a recurring part of the Sacred Art Institute’s programming.
The institute’s broader visual-arts program includes painting, drawing, iconography, calligraphy, stained glass and other traditional art forms, with workshops intended to accommodate both beginning and experienced artists.
For the August 28 class, artists won’t be looking at that landscape under ordinary conditions.
They’ll watch it change.
From Dusk to Darkness
Participants can arrive beginning at 6:30 p.m. and will check in at the Sacred Art Studio.
The workshop begins at 7 p.m. and continues until 10 p.m.
Artists should bring their own painting supplies, including a portable easel and palette, brushes, palette knives, oil paints, painting mediums and a canvas or gessoed board.
There’s one particularly important addition for this class: lights.
Participants are asked to bring two cordless lights, one to illuminate the palette and another for the canvas.
That allows the surrounding landscape to remain dark while artists can still see the colors they’re mixing and the painting taking shape in front of them.
Three Hours, One Changing Landscape
The most interesting subject Friday night may not be any individual building, tree or stretch of shoreline.
It’s the changing light itself.
Artists begin while there’s still enough daylight to sketch what they see. Twilight changes the colors. Darkness changes them again. Artificial lights emerge against the island while the water and sky take on completely different values.
And unlike painting from a nighttime photograph, there’s no frozen reference waiting patiently on a screen.
The scene keeps changing.
That’s the challenge DeLouise and his students will spend three hours trying to catch.
Event Details
Event: Nocturnal Plein Air Oil Painting Workshop
Date: Friday, August 28, 2026
Time: 7–10 p.m.
Arrival: Beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Enders Island / St. Edmund’s Retreat
Address: 1 Enders Island, Mystic, CT 06355
Instructor: Dan DeLouise
Admission: $100
Experience Level: All skill levels
Check-In: Sacred Art Studio
Painting Location: Behind the Main House
Materials: Participants must bring their own painting supplies
Lighting: Two cordless lights recommended, one for the palette and one for the canvas
Nocturnal Plein Air Oil Painting Workshop gives artists a rare opportunity to paint Enders Island as twilight turns to darkness during a three-hour outdoor class with Dan DeLouise.
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
To register, click the Event Ticketing link below.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.