MALIBU, Calif. - Getting ready to paint outside is no day at the beach. When Barbara Freund arrives, she looks more like she’s going camping. Actually, she’ll spend the morning camped out at El Matador State Park, capturing its beauty on a tiny canvas. 

She brings everything -- “all the tools of the trade," she said. That includes paints, an easel, and a chicken timer.  She set it for 60 minutes.

"Something this small, I should be ashamed of myself if I can’t get it done in an hour,” she explained.

Freund is a member of the Allied Artists of the Santa Monica Mountains and Seashore. She helps organize the groups monthly plein air paint-outs. In French, the word "plein" relates to being outdoors, or in the open air.

“It just gets you to connect with nature and how therapeutic," said Freund. "The world goes away, the stresses…you can feel it fall off you.”

Each gathering features a guest artist, like Bruce Trentham, who talked about his personal approach and technique. From there, members of the group set about their work, painting in different styles and mediums. 

They work alone, but also together, visiting each other to admire the works in progress and offer feedback.

Plein air painting has been around for centuries but Freund says it’s experiencing something of a renaissance, with more people taking it up as a relaxing hobby. “

I’ve heard that it’s now called the new golf," she said.

This group goes deeper than that. Several times a year they sell their art, donating 20 percent of their proceeds to local conservation groups. Preserving the natural beauty on their canvas is one thing, but they say they need to preserve it in real life as well, because if they don’t?

“Well, we’d have no place to paint, would we?” asked Freund.

Her time on this painting is almost up, and so is her time at her day job. This summer, Freund is retiring and plans to spend more even more time outdoors -- painting, hiking, and kayaking.

“Now that could actually be extreme plein air painting if I packed up in the kayak," she laughed. "But you never know! It could be fun!"

A stroke of genius as she sails into her next chapter.