COEUR d'ALENE - Karen Pfeiffer knows a great way to determine who can paint. Fortunately, pretty much everyone can meet this single qualification.

"I know when we have little kids come around, I'll ask them, 'Can you draw a crooked line?' They say yes. 'Can you draw a straight one?' 'Not very well.' I said, 'Good. Straight lines are boring. Crooked lines, you can develop.

"I keep telling them, you're an artist if you can draw a crooked line."

Pfeiffer and other members of the Coeur d'Alene Art Association are again taking their talents outside - crooked lines and all - as part of their plein air gatherings on Wednesday mornings.

With easel, canvas, brushes and paints, they'll venture out once a week through the summer and early fall, pick a spot, and get to it. Bayview, Rose Lake or Harrison. Trees, lakes, rocks, barns, birds, anything within their vision, are their subjects.

Soon, the white canvas is alive with blues, greens, yellows and reds.

From those just starting to those who have hundreds of creations to their credit, the 85-member Coeur d'Alene Art Association is for anyone and everyone.

"It's fun. Anybody can paint," Pfeiffer said.

Jackie Jewett, 10-year member of the group, said painters encourage and inspire each other.

"It's a journey. We're learning as we go along," she said. "We all enjoy the same thing. We all have a kinship there."

Their plein air paintings are far from perfect. But practice always helps.

"You can't paint too long on one because the sun moves and the shadows are all different," Jewett said. "So you paint as fast as you can, and then you move on.

"And you don't expect to have masterpieces," she added. "You just paint what you see and move on."

Pfeiffer estimates she has hundreds of paintings to her credit. A few, she added with a laugh, have ended up at the county transfer station.

"A lot of them are under the bed," she said.

Thirty-year art association member Sharon Mille joked that her paintings are perfect for at least one thing:

"They start a good fire," she said.

Kidding aside, Mille has always loved the arts. She enjoys sitting or standing in front of a blank canvas and turning it into something special straight from her heart.

"It's relaxing really, even though it's hard," she said.

For less than $100, anyone can buy the equipment needed to start painting scenes that they see, or scenes out of their imagination.

Members encourage anyone interested to join them. Besides the camaraderie, they may discover a hidden talent for using oils, watercolors or pastels.

There is one key quality.

"Desire," Mille said.

Pfeiffer said there are some excellent painters in the group, and many have gone on to "bigger and better things."

The self-taught painter urges artists to be creative rather than conservative.

For instance, she added a house to a scene where there wasn't one. The branches became a little more dramatic than the tree that stood before her.

"You use your artistic license to do what you want," she said.

Being part of the plein air painters keeps her sharp and gets her outside for a few hours each Wednesday after a long winter inside painting primarily from photographs.

"I like to keep my hand in it, otherwise I lose my ability to do it," Pfeiffer said.

There are those days Pfeiffer doesn't care for her finished work. The sky isn't blue enough, the fence falters, the field felt fake. Sometimes, when that happens, well, she wipes the canvas clean.

Literally.

Time to start over.

"Oh yeah, I'll just wipe it off," she said with a smile. "This is practice."

The Coeur d'Alene Art Association will be part of ArtWalk on the second Friday of each month with a display by its members at The Resort Plaza Shops. The plein air painters meet at 8:30 a.m. each Wednesday.

Anyone interested in joining the CDA Art Association can email Suzanne Jewell at snj123@roadrunner.com.