These pics were taken yesterday, and show the final painting after a days work. It was lots of fun!
This entry is for some fellow artists who wanted to know what equipment I take out into the dunes on my bicycle to do oil painting.
I bring just a few paints:
Cerulean Blue
French Ultramarine
Alizarin Crimson
Cadmuim Red Light
Lemon Yellow Hue
Cadmium Yellow Light
Burnt Umber
Magenta Quinacridone
With these paints, you can mix any color. I store them in a small cardboard box along with some plastic bags to hold the used paper towels, and a small jar of solvent for cleaning out my brushes.
During the cold rainy season in Holland, when temps are 30 to 40 degrees, I need to bring warm clothes. (This is most of the time in Holland.) I bring a heavy raincoat that can get dirty with oilpaint. (I look like a bum when I go out painting but it keeps the people away.) I wear a thin water wicking layer shirt next to my skin, followed by a t-shirt, then the thickest wool sweater I own, knit by my Mom. I have some great fingerless mittens, with a little flap that covers the fingers when they get too cold.
The paintbrushes are stored upright in my painiers, inside a paper towel tube. The paper towels are essential for clean-up. Don't forget a plastic bag to hold the used paper towels.
A sketch pad, pencil, and charcoal are used for composition design and for doing a quick value sketch. These drawings are not in any way valuable, they are just to get down the ideas and are thrown away. Don't get hung up on the value drawing, it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. I also bring a camera, which can help me to frame and see in 2 dimensions, as well as design a composition.
I bring water, hot tea in a bright red thermous (the warm happy color makes me happy out in the dunes.) Don't forget a lunch, a peanut butter and jelly. What an American.
To carry the canvases, I bring tupperware containers that into which I can store the canvas. These can be strapped to the top of the bike rack or in the bottom of the panier.
Don't forget an easel and a pallette. I mix my paints in the tray inside my easel. The easel folds up around the tray, so everything stays clean. I just leave the paints there, which means I never have to clean them up and I can just keep on using them day after day. In this cold weather, the paint stays good for up to a week.
I bring a tire patch kit, a pump, and tools for the bike. I also carry a screwdriver to tighten the screws on my easel which are always loosening on the cobblestones.
Everthing packs away nicely into panniers.
4 comments:
This is probably a dumb question, but how do you get the wet paintings home?
Oh, good question actually - I put them in a tupperware dish, seal it up, and make sure to pack it horizontally!
Would you be inclined to pack some herring or other fish snack instead of PB&J? That way you could associate the painting with any "sea" smell that you experienced ?!?
I wonder what the great painters of yesteryear would eat while they were painting?
bread and cheese is way better, and probably is what Van Gogh would have eaten with an apple and a glass of wine. The Dutch do bread and cheese really, really well....
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