I'm heading out on a camping/painting trip and since I was packing my gear up I figured I'd snap some photos to show. Now I don't do a lot of plein air (mostly because I am horrible at making decisions about what to paint and most of my trips outdoors have been well planned excuses to walk in circles lugging my easel and bag until the sun is about to go down and I am forced to pick something). However I've never had a bad enough experience to keep me away and I always learn or am reminded of a ton. Nature is the best place to learn, so if I'm already going to put myself in the middle of it I may as well be productive and paint something.
This is the typical amount of stuff I take with me. I do take a full French easel and also a pochade box for smaller paintings. Usually I use the box around the campsite and just set it on my lap. Most of my stuff fits into the travel bag which is an old photo bag with various pockets that has plenty of space for my immediately needed items. I do take two sketchbooks as well. The larger one I use to actually sketch in when I'm tired of painting, while the other small blue one I use for doing thumbnail sketches in to build a composition for painting.That red lidded Tupperware container (clearly labeled "Do Not Eat" in case of stupidity after to many bonfire drinks) holds the leftover paint piles from the day. Not so much the clean colors but the mixed up muddy grays or "graveyard piles" as I call them.
Since I know I will be painting in easy to walk to areas most of this stuff, such as the tubes of paint(I just load up the palette that's kept inside the easel or pochade box) extra supports, and trash bags I will leave either at the campsite or in the car and get between paintings or as needed.
One of the things you don't see (which I didn't forget) is my brushes. I was in the process of washing them so they were left out of the picture but I take about 4-5 various sized brushes with me and keep them in the easel under the palette.
One thing I've learned to do is carry those small plastic bags you get at the supermarket to put fruit and veggies in. They are great for holding your used brushes for the weekend and I just wrap them up to keep them from drying. This is also great in the studio since brush washing is not on my agenda. It rarely happens to be honest. I've gone about 5 days with my brushes in the bag like this and never had an issue. A little swish through the turps and they are good to go. I do sometimes put a rubber band around them if its excessively hot out.
This is everything packed away and as you can see all I will need to carry is whichever setup I'm using and the camera bag. My water and turps can hang on the bag with metal key chain clips. I also have a small folded stool and attachable umbrella that usually stays in my trunk unless I am lazy enough to sit or will be in extreme sun.
This is my paint bag (overnight bag from Ikea $5-$7 I think??) lined with one of the plastic grocery bags in case the paint leaks. (It's always the cadmium red that leaks..) Palette knives right in front, although they really get thrown into the easel before I go out. The bag usually stays.
This is the smaller paint box I use. It's a gorilla painters cigar box that I've had for a number of years. I generally use it for small paintings as the largest fitting for it is 8x10 but because of the way it holds panels you can't paint all the way around the support. To remedy this I just tape smaller supports to an 8x10 panel. The front are museum boards and the back is the Arches Oil paper. I have several taped on there so when I finish one I just take it down and start on the next behind it. Eventually I will invest in something like the Open Box M or Easy L models, but for now this works just fine for me.
Hopefully I complete something and/or something good enough to post! Follow me on
Facebook as I'm sure I will be posting throughout the weekend.
We shall see...
