In my last post I showed you the supplies that I pack on a plein air trip. I often travel by car and in that situation my space is almost unlimited. I don’t have to worry about space and weight. But when I travel by plane it is a different story. I will now show you a few tips that might save you some money, space and weight when traveling.
One of the most “disposable” items would be paper towels, you can pick them up at your destination. I would still take the plastic bags. They can be difficult to come by in some locations and don’t take up much room. If you are willing to pour solvent back into it’s original container, you could use a disposable cup or bring a camping cup that collapses to pour the solvent in for use while painting. Bring only the essential brushes (1 liner, flats #4, 8, 12, filbert #6, #10) and 1 palette knife. If you want light-weight panels, use ones with gatorfoam instead of board. Or, bring a tablet of arches oil paper, tape and a single board to tape the paper onto. You can also use canvas cut into pieces taped or tacked onto a board. As far as a panel carrier, there are different options. Raymar has panel carriers that are very light weight or you can also use panelpaks of varying sizes. Each one will store two paintings.
Raymar Panel Carrier
Panel Pak, wet painting carrier
Now, I’m going to show and tell you how I will be packing my supports for my paintings. I will be in Europe painting this summer for an extended period of time and need to pack a lot of things keeping the weight down and space to a minimum. I will be using arches oil paper much of the time. If, when I get home, I want to frame any of my paintings, I will be able to mount the paper onto a board using Miracle Muck, an archival glue that I use when making panels.
I am also taking a roll of wax paper. I use the paper to pack a sheet between dry paintings for protection. I will take a few panels with me which have a gatorboard support to keep the weight down and to easily put pushpins (more about this below) into the corners. I won’t be taking my Raymar panel carriers or panel paks with me. I’ll take advantage of the panel carrier in my tripod for the daily transport of wet paintings.
For storage of my wet paintings, I will be using push pins and double-sided velcro. Shown below is how I will pack the paintings with these supplies.
I will use gatorboard for the support to keep it lightweight and to be able to put the pushpins into it. The paintings are stored with the dry backsides together and a space between the wet sides. The pushpins on all four corners of the wet painting will create the space between wet paintings. I can just lay the second painting wet side down on the tops of the pushpins. The back of that painting is facing out. I will then place the next painting back side right on top of the previous painting and start the process all over again. Once I have them stacked, I can then put two straps of double sided velcro over the whole stack, either crisscrossing them or going over the same side as in the above diagram.
Now, to figure out how many panels to take with me. I will be touring as well as painting. I won’t be painting all day long. I figure I will paint on average two paintings a day. The paint on my paintings can be thick in some places which will take longer to dry. I need to plan on about 5 to 7 days drying time. That means that I will need to have 14 gatorboard supports. Each of those boards will have linen glued to them using miracle muck. I can then use the back sides as a painting support to tape or tack cut linen or arches oil paper to them.
I’m not sure yet of the exact times that I will be traveling, but it looks like it will be two months of touring and painting. If that is the case, I will need a total of 14 painting surfaces times for 8 weeks equaling 112 canvases. I’m going to plan on two stacks of paintings to stack with pushpins. I probably will paint more 8×10 than any other size. So, 8, 8×10 gatorboards and 6, 9×12′s with linen glued to them. I will probably take 4 oil paper tablets with 12 pages and the rest will be cut pieces of linen in the two sizes. The oil paper comes in 9″x12″ sizes. I can paint two paintings on one piece of paper, creating 2 6″x8″ paintings. This way I will have three sizes of paintings, 6″x8″, 8″x10″ and 9″x12″, and of course any other size in between. After each painting is dry, I will place a piece of wax paper between the paintings to store them safely. I’ll probably place them flat at the bottom of my suitcase.
I will be participating in Art in the Open in Ireland at the end of my trip. It is there that I will need the linen panels for the show. After using the back side of each of my gatorboard panels as a support for the linen and oil paper, I will use the linen side at this time. I figured that my stack of 14 gatorboard panels will be just under 6″ thick. I’m not sure how thick the paper and cut linen will be, but this will certainly be a minimal way to carry a lot of painting supports with me.
My pochade box, an alla prima bitterroot lite, carries the panels and the brushes. So, I will be using them, instead of bringing a brush carrier and a panel carrier. I would like to not bother with solvent. If, I bring enough brushes, two of each size, I will have one brush for dark colors and one for light colors. I should be able to keep brush cleaning to a minimum. But, I think I will take a collapsible camping cup, just in case I need it for oil to clean between colors. I don’t want to worry about obtaining and disposing of solvent. I’ll pick up paper towels when I get to my locations.
My supply list for my trip:
two boxes of paints:
4 tubes titanium white, 2 cad yellow lemon, 2 cad orange, 2 cad red, 2 alizarine crimson, 2 dioxazene purple, 2 ultramarine, 2 cerulean blue.
8 8″x10″ gatorboard panels
6 9″x12″ gatorboard panels
4 9″x12″ arches oil paper panels
approximately 50 cut pieces of linen
bristle magic brush cleaner
wax paper
hat
sunscreen
Brushes: 2 #4 flat, 2 # 8 flat, 2 #12 flat, 2 #6 filbert, 2 #10 filbert, 1 liner, 2 palette knives
plastic bags
pochade box and tripod
I have two tripods, a Manfrotto and the lighter weight tripod, Slik. I prefer the Manfrotto and would like to take it unless the weight of my luggage is too heavy, then it will be the Slik tripod.
All the painting supplies will fit in my rolling backpack/carrier. One thing I need to do to fit the tripod inside the carrier, is to remove the head of the tripod. Then the whole tripod fits into the backpack with the zipper completely closed. It will easily wheel through the airports and on sidewalks. But, if I need to carry it, it will convert to a backpack.
My next posts will be about some of the alternative medias to use while traveling other than oil paints.
There are still a couple openings for the Tuscany, Italy workshop June 7 – 14, 2014
and the Normandy, France Workshop July 12 – 19, 2014
Happy Painting!
Becky