Of course, we are talking about gear here, not painting quality.
I am heading to Italy to paint on vacation. I have never done that before and am using that trip as an excuse to level up my painting paraphernalia. We need to take an easel, table, and anything else we might need except turps. This opens up a whole range of questions:
- Which media – oil or pastel?
- How will we get our paintings home?
- If pastel, how many are needed?
- What about paper towels?
- What size canvas/paper? Boards or other?
- How big will this be? How heavy?
- Will it fit in my backpack? And do I need a new backpack?
- What about the plane and customs? What is needed to transport oil paint?
- Should we carry it on or pack it in the suitcase?
I think I have decided to not decide on the media. I will be taking oil and pastel – maybe oil in the morning and pastel in the afternoon painting session. That means I need a way to paint both. I will put links into what I have assembled at the end of the post. The description below starts with assembly.
I settled on a carbon fiber tripod that collapses pretty small and fits in my current backpack. At home, I put the tripod on a rolling stand. The stand folds up but I don’t think I need it on the road. The lightweight tripod has a unique 1/4 threaded hole near the center mount to screw in stuff. I got a rod with a threaded end to serve as a paper towel holder, and not just any paper towel – Viva per my instructor Margaret Dyer.
Now, time to bling up the tripod. First comes the brush and turps holder that clamps onto the tripod leg. This tripod has a padded monopod leg so make sure that that leg is pointing away from where you will be standing. Clamps work best on the leg rather than the padding.
Next up, creature comfort. I have an adjustable USB battery operated fan that I have used on my looms. It lasts a long time and really makes a difference.
Next, trash. I have a crab mount with a 1/4 accessory mount that I attach another rod to support the trash bag. I will probably also add a paint tube holder but that will be V2.
The tripod has a stability hook on the bottom of the center pole. This could hold my backpack, water bottle, rocks, etc. to provide more stability in a windy environment. In the house, I just hang an extra solvent container.
Time to add the pochade box. I went with u.go because it contained the wet paint after a session and had an adjustable canvas mount that extended to 20″ It also is about the size of my laptop so it fits in my backpack. I swapped out the plexiglas palette for glass so I am good to go. One thing I love is that I can remove the palette to clean it and also to make a space for my pastel box. More on that later.
A side note, I have put together clips to make canvas holders that keep wet paintings safe. I will glue the clips together, right now they are just slid together, because they can shift and that is scary with wet paint.
My setup had paint from a class session but you can see that there is plenty of space for paint. I attach a magnetic side tray to hold brushes or my phone, etc. I could do without that in a pinch for oil painting but will need it for pastel.
All that is needed is the reference image on the iPad and brushes ready to go. Here is the setup all ready for painting.
To solve the pastel problem I laser cut some nesting wooden boxes that hold a more portable set of pastels than I use at home. The boxes are held together with a big rubber band (might switch to velcro straps) and have a few tops so that if I need to pack it in smaller chunks I can do that.
Here it is on the tripod and ready to go. I have whittled my collection down into a range of values for each color group – I keep the really dark ones together on the left.
What will be next? I think V2 will add a container or roll for oil paints, perhaps a way to mount my battery powered light – not necessary outside but in some classes lighting is not the best. I can see I need a bag to hold my panel cllps, throwing them on the floor is not the best idea. In the field, an umbrella would probably not go amiss but I don’t see an obvious way to connect that to the tripod and not sure that is a good idea anyway – if it sails away it should not take my tripod with it!
Otherwise I have a setup that fits in my backpack which fits under the seat in front of me for travel. It is packed pretty tightly but things fit. I’ve tested this setup for a few oil paintings and will test the new pastel setup soon. I may need something to keep the pastel dust off the pochade box – maybe a little shelf under the board… hmmm. More on that later, I guess.
Here is a list of everything I used to make this work. I had some of this stuff already, bought some things (prime day made a difference) and made the rest.
Pochade – u.go Large – https://newwaveart.com/collections/u-go-plein-air-anywhere-pochade-boxes/products/u-go-plein-air-anywhere-pochade-box-large – now that I have seen and used this I could probably make one but right now I am not sure what I would change. I might add a bracket mount to attach a light, not sure yet.
Magnetic side tray – https://newwaveart.com/collections/u-go-plein-air-anywhere-side-trays/products/u-go-plein-air-anywhere-metal-side-tray-4-x-11
Canvas holder extension – https://newwaveart.com/collections/u-go-plein-air-anywhere-accessories/products/u-go-plein-air-anywhere-large-extender-panel-holder – a must for larger boards.
Tripod – Small Rig AP-20 – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF56FKWF?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
Rods for towel/trash/etc – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZFPK2I?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
Connectors for rods – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072KN8GXS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
Crab clamps for misc. attachment – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PHNRS3N?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
Brush and solvent holder – https://www.ledereasel.com/store/p9/easelcaddy-paintbrush-and-jar-holder.html
iPad Mount – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0936P1MNB?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_6&th=1
Fan – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRTPYP1B?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1
Backpack – Kanken 17″ Laptop
I use the large iPad.