Guest Artists - Reminders of Painting What You See

Visitors while painting is part of the pleasure and annoyances of painting in public. When you're in the zone and someone whispers, "what are yodoing?' just over your shoulder is an annoyance, and has caused my heart to stop and my brush to paint an extra long limb. For the most part, I appreciate the visitors. It allows a random moment to step away from my work and look at it from their eyes. I always see something I need to fix. 

Having children as visitors is my favorite. I usually carry a hard cover sketchbook and a marker, and offer them an opportunity to make their own artwork on a page. The deal is, their parent can take a photo of the art, (usually they want the artist and my painting too) and I keep the book.

Some arrive with their own coloring implements, on their way to somewhere their time needs to be occupied. I'm amazed at how much elementary-age kids know about art and color. I don't think I got any of that from Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Green Jeans. They know what the primary colors are, and even more impressive, how to make green, purple and orange - the secondary colors.  

Parents have asked me for my painting schedule, which I don't provide, mainly because I don't have one. I've had parents return with their kids to watch the progress of my painting or to bring me a painting the child has made in the meantime. 

I've worked with children since I had a robust babysitting business, starting as a mother's helper for a neighbor when I was around 10. In high school, I brought flowers with a note, "thanks for the new business", to my favorite families with newborns. Though my credential from college was as a health educator, my first job was as a health coordinator for a poverty agency in Jackson, MI, connected to a family-related Head Start Program. THe focus of my work was to knock away any challenges that prevented preschool children from attending and getting their Head Start. 

Cumpulsory staff training happened every Friday. Employees received GEDs or credits toward bachelor or masters degrees with professors from Michigan State University and the local Community College. My on the job trainging allowed me to observe and interact with the kids intentionally. When I left that position, I was well on my way to a graduate degree and forever respectful and awed by preschoolers. Later jobs took my out the realm of kids, but their visits are always a joy, a reconnection to a much younger me, and a reminder to paint the way I see things... 

Art Collectors - Why They Do or Don't Collect Plein Air

For the last few months, in preparation for the Plein Air Painters Chicago fifth I Heart Plein Air Conference, I have interviewed seven individuals who represent, collect or acquire art. The inteviews have taught me that every person and organization that collects art, has a different reason and aesthetic, and that I, as an artist, can't paint for them. As artists we can paint for ourselves and find kindred spirits. I am honored to say that some of these collectors are my kindred spirits.

Here are links to those video interviews.  

Mary Longe overview of the interviews: https://youtu.be/17eHy45HZBQ

Michelle Strassburger https://youtu.be/TcLSTf9BD3E

Chicago designer Michelle Strassburger has been collecting since the mid-eighties and has amassed collections-of-collections of outsider art, musical instruments, dolls, furniture, crosses and figurative, still life and plein air paintings – 3000 pieces, at least. She sees the Palette & Chisel as the place to find emerging artists and has several pieces by PAPC artists represented. She describes what inspires her, her process for going through exhibits and choosing paintings, and what she plans for the future of her collection. Mary Longe interviews Michelle Strassburger in her Chicago home.

Samantha Michalski https://youtu.be/hHo9cHQ1-h4

A prize for winning best in show at the Cedarburg Plein Air Festival is to have your painting purchased by the Cedarburg Art Museum. The organization’s mission reflects its connection to the community and surrounding areas. Museum Director, Samantha Michalski reflects on the role of museums, and their connection to the community and to artists. She explains why the CAM and other regional museums are partial to plein air paintings. Mary Longe talks with Samantha Michalski via Zoom.

Rick Reinert https://youtu.be/1ScPAq3zpzw

Rick and Ann Reinert founded Reinert Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Charleston, SC, and they understand artists, and after years as a gallery owner they understand the people who purchase art. In this conversation, Rick helps us understand the role and the opportunity of a gallery for an artist. He explains what artists should do if they’d like to be represented, the opportunity for them, and the responsibilities in the relationship between artist and gallery. Reinert Fine Art Gallery represents locals, Errol Jacobson, Mary Qian, and William Schneider. Mary Longe talks with Rick Reinert via Zoom.

Barbara Van Driel https://youtu.be/cR_KO97w3i8

Barbara Van Driel’s three residences have different genres of art. What they share is her love for hanging multiple pieces from masters in the genres. In Chicago, her home has more than twenty paintings by PAPC Master Artist, Nancy King Mertz. Barbara tells us why she collects in that fashion, her relationship to the artists, and to the art. Mary Longe interviews Barbara Van Driel in her Chicago home.

Canice Prendergast https://youtu.be/JaYLZV3YWEw

Canice Prendergast manages acquisitions of art work for the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business along with a team of students, faculty and alums. Here he brings his experience with the global art market and his expertise as an economics professor to explain how and why the UC acquires items for its collection. You;ll be surprised by some responses. Mary Longe talks with Canice Prendergast via Zoom.

Jose Santillan https://youtu.be/0Ul0xgpi_lE

Jose Santillan has favorite types of art and favorite artists but likes to find new ones. He establishes an annual budget and sometimes buys a painting from a recognized artist or decides it’s the year for serendipitous buying. He tells us what moves him to make purchases. Mary Longe talks with Jose Santillan via Zoom.

Elizabeth Murphy https://youtu.be/3Iv1oaLymCk

Collecting Art: Buying Plein Air Online, A Conversation with Elizabeth Murphy, Chicago, IL Beth Murphy combs the internet for art and buys from all over the world. She wanders through craft and fine art fairs, and even renaissance festivals searching out emerging artists. She rarely pays more than $100 and has more paintings than she can frame or hang. She knows what she likes, what’s worth the money, and tells us why. Mary Longe talks with Beth Murphy via Zoom.

When A Scene Turns to Love

This is my happy place, Ft. Sheridan, near Highland Park, IL on September 5th, 2021. General Patton lived here for a time, I've heard, it's probably true; a street bears his name. I paint here frequently enough to actually recognize people who also come here regularly. It is a place to appreciate the Lake. You can’t officially swim here because, there might be unexploded ordinants in the water. I always thought that was an urban legend but, only waded a few time, not wanting to tempt fate. Earlier this year, a grenade from a war a long time ago was found a few hundred yards away.

One couple stopped by my easel and commented on my painting. Out of the blue the man said- We are all connected by love. A few hours before, I had found the obit of someone I once loved. With that, this scene, this painting reminds me of that love. (Painting - sold.)

What Does My Solo Show Mean? Consciously Counting the Beats to My Next Cymbal Clang

If you've followed my posts, you've read about my path, development and process of becoming an artist. I refer to myself as that now, though it still feels a bit clumsy or maybe pretentious as it rolls out, but it's incorporated into my life in so many ways. It's how I spend my time, my vacations, my money; it's in my clothes, those with and without paint. It shows in the special but ugly light fixtures in my "studio"  and, the renovations that created better storage for equipment, supplies and paintings that haven't found a home. I bristle at the word "hobby", yet the IRS has a definition I can't deny, but I'm still an artist, even if leaning toward starving in the metaphoric sense.

Up until now, I've referred to myself as a beginner painter. I've been aware that I've moved through phases used in the training industry. I showed unconscious incompetence, when I asked an early teacher, "why?" when he told me I needed to learn to draw. I approached conscious incompetence as I struggled with making landscapes recede or shadows lengthen correctly,  to conscious competence where I seem to reside most now as I struggle with consistency in my painting processes and intentionality with each brushstroke, it's like the percussionist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who moves his lips and counts the beats preparing for the next cymbal clang or drum bang.  And, sometimes, there are inklings of the next and last phase, unconscious competence, when I put down a stroke and it's right and I know it, and I leave it.

This show marks the end of the beginning. No doubt, I will continue to move through consciousness and competence as I continue to paint and improve my painting. This end allows me to forge a new path and direction, not letting go of what brought me here, but building on it.

My Art Dish, a video chat with Guest Artist Stephanie Weidner

My Art Dish, A Video Chat with Artist Lee Radtke

Paintings and Synchronicity

Who loves synchronicity? Me too. 

So, there I was at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show looking for something to paint. Nothing spoke to me, till I found a large display that included farm implements, a bee keeping suit, bee hives and a farm stand with honey. Turns out the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences sponsored the booth. I painted the faux farmer’s market scene and bought honey at their trailer where they sold that and other products they produced. I was inspired after talking to the kids and teachers and learning about the cool programs they had, and wanted to connect again. Unfortunately, I didn’t get names. Ha… until synchronicity stepped in. Guess who the lead beekeeper/teacher is at the school? Greg Fischer, the beekeeper and owner of Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery, who will be offering mead tastings at the Buzz – Bees and Beekeepers, paintings by Mary Longe at Chimera Loft, 6/29 5:30-8.  

Oh, and who doesn’t love a good pun?  The Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences is outstanding in it’s field. 

The other odd thing that happened at the Garden show while I was painting  that picture… I had tucked myself in a corner so I’d be out of the way. Nearly done, I heard, Mary Longe? It was the daughter of dear friends who live in Asheville who’d moved from the south a couple weeks prior. I had a painting I’d done of her playhouse in TN a couple months before that, to give her as a house warming. Honestly, I don’t love the painting of the faux farmers market, but I love all the connections that day.

Camaraderie – The Joy of Painting Together

When the Plein Air Painters Chicago Steering Committee created its mission statement, camaraderie as one element listed after painting, improving, and selling paintings. It wasn’t at an afterthought, but all aspects of painting ranked higher on the priority list. As it turns out, members usually rank the interaction to other artists as the second most important reason they belong to the PAPC. They came for the painting and stay for the people who care about painting, and are willing to console and kavetch about painting. They want to commune with someone who knows what its like to feel discouraged, be driven to paint, or need a nudge to submit a painting for a contest or enter a competition. Camaraderie doesn’t mean family, but it can be the ease of old school friend, the excitement of learning new things from a date or the shared intimacy of disappointment and success. 

So, I’ve been thinking about how the members of the PAPC experience camaraderie. I admit, I didn’t love the word when we first placed it in consideration for our mission. I suggested instead, the word fun, but it took little convincing that we should expect more. Words like  welcoming, inclusive, and supportive shaped the concept. It was quickly decided that we welcome everyone to paint with us, paid membership or not. If lunch after a paint-out is in the works, everyone is invited. If someone’s discouraged about matching a color, getting the shape of a car, or struggling to give a figure more dimension, they only have to ask.  PAPC comrades in art will come to the rescue. 

Here are other ways for any of us to show camaraderie.

Social media –

• When a painting is posted on Facebook and Instagram, like it, better yet, make a comment. 
• If a fellow artist shares a promotion for a personal or group show, share it, attend it and take friends who like art or like you. Consider sharing promotions from the Palette and Chisel, what helps them helps the PAPC.  That goes too for any of your instructors.
• If someone posts a newsletter, share that on the same social channel, and, copy and paste it to another. Whether the newsletter is written for artists or collectors, it may benefit someone. 
• If you’re also a figurative or portrait painter, invite models to bring family and friends to a show to see their likeness.  
• Grow your network. Keep track of people who buy or are interested in your work. Let them know not only about your own show, but group shows as well.  
• We all need support and camaraderie at one time or another. Use your social networks  to ask for what you need… be the receiver and expect that your comrades in art will respond.

Critiques 

• Critiques onsite - Plein air painting reminds me of my son’s high school track team. Everyone worked toward personal bests and there were MVPs, but the team stayed till the last competitor jumped. You may choose not to be critiqued or enter a competition, but you sticking around till the end, offers support and encouragement. 
• If someone asks you for a critique of their work.  Start with a question, How will my critique help you? Focus on that. 
• Begin with a positive, ask if they want more. Be precise and don’t offer an opinion if you don’t know how to fix something that’s not working.  Err on the side of encouragement. 

  

Go with a fellow artist to museums and galleries. 

• There’s nothing like looking at a painting with someone who shares the language and understands what it may have taken to create the image you’re seeing. It doesn’t have to be an art expert, I’ve learned. In fact, for me, some of them have a tendency in explaining to forget the feeling. 
• Once immediately after a paint out in Grant Park, Ray Vlcek and I toured plein air paintings at the Art Institute. Maybe it was our fresh encounter with landscapes, but those few minutes we took to notice and discuss the capture of light, composition, shapes and patterns was especially useful. Check out the light in this 1909 plein air landscape on display at the Art Institute of Chicago by George Gardner Symons.   
• Discussing online work with a fellow painter can be valuable too. After staring at raucus waves in changing light for a couple hours I was no closer to capturing them. Studying Anders Zorn’s paintings Sommamoje, Caique Oarsman and Pier paintings with an artist, helped me see them better and stop obsessing. BTW, while I still don’t paint water well, but it helps to know that Zorn spent more than two years on some of his paintings.  

Camaraderie for me is still about fun and sharing the joy of painting plein air.  How can I encourage you? How can we encourage each other?

How to Carry Wet Paintings: A $5.49 DIY panel carrier

Here is a quick and cheap idea for a panel carrier. 

Plein air painting requires a lot of equipment for just the basics, easel, tripod, an umbrella depending on sun and weather, a medium like pastels, oil or watercolor, and their surfaces to paint on, paper or canvas and linen panels (and all the other options), and brushes. If you are a plein air artist, you know there's more too... rags or paper towels, view finder, mall stick, tools, water, and so on. This post is focused narrowly - for oil painters to suggest a cheap, simple way to transport in a dry panel and to transport out a wet one. 

The premise is simple: Create a light, cheap device that holds two panels of the same size 9x12", 12x16", whatever, to protect them from being dirtied or scratched, and to protect the artist or the artist's belongings from getting more paint on them. (Who among us hasn't found unplanned paint on a light switch, car door handle, and a favorite shirt?) I've described a simple solution below. 

You will need 2 frames, glue and a rubber band. I had the glue and rubber band on hand. 

Yesterday, I decided to paint plein air on a 5X7" canvas panel but didn't have a carrier for it. Typically, I use an 8x10" 9x12" or 11x14" for painting outdoors. For those I have beautiful panel carriers made by a carpenter-friend. To buy them online, the cost is around $20 plus shipping, but mine are works of art themselves, made from scraps of specialty wood. 

To get by yesterday, I took a C-clamp and wax paper, and counted on the idea that once in the car, it would get minimal jostling. The wax paper would keep debris and dust from landing on it and the clamp provides a handle. Anyway, I figured I could fix any smudging.  But then, in Chicago, there are wide and fast corners...

On the way home from the paint out, the wet painting slid around in the trunk of my car. It really didn't hurt anything, but I can't depend on my luck holding. Turns out, I liked the idea of painting small. I painted looser, faster and worked out the values. If I had a bit more time, I could have completed a second painting.  So, I stopped at Michaels and found a package of two wood frames for $10. Immediately, I saw the potential and found a 50% discount coupon on line that to use at the cashier. This project cost $5.49, with sales tax, sans the glue and rubber band. 

At home I removed the cellophane from the frames and removed the glass and paper.  

Using my trusty glue gun, I smeared glue on the front sides of both frames and placed them together. Later, I laid another bead of glue around the edges as an even seal. Someone asked, why do you need glue, not simply the rubber band to hold them together. Because, you don't want them to slide. If you don't have a glue gun, use Elmers, chunks of double sided tape or Velcro, though none of those sound as easy to me.

I was able to place my wet panel from earlier in the day facing the center. I could add a second one on the other side, also facing the center, because the depth of the frames will keep them separated. 

While I used the clips that were included in the frame, I am sure with use they will break off. I added a rubber band for extra security.  Next time I go out, I will insert a blank canvas surface on each side and complete one or two as time and energy allow. Or, if you only have on canvas of the size, you could keep and use, the backing that has the hangers on it.... come to think of it, you end up with a nice frame for showing it at a critique or until you use your carrier again. 

                                      

This idea is not my own. I copied it from the very talented, clever and thrifty Wisconsin artist, Dana M. Johnson, who painted plein air with the Plein Air Painters Chicago a couple summers back. As I remember the story, she and her dad created from frames found at a thrift store. I've looked there and garage sales, but never found two identical frames that would work. With the coupon, the price is about as good as it gets and a quarter of what you'd pay for a manufactured panel carrier. Michaels has many sizes of these packages of frames. There's no reason you couldn't make one for each size you use.  

For more on traveling and transporting plein air equipment, check out this post: How to Pack for Plein Air Painting Travel.

Fundamentals of Drawing and Painting: A Course in Courage to Become an Artist

I’m struggling with a painting of a beekeeper in a field calming bees by smoking a hive. An 18”x24” panel sits on a wood easel I bought last year to bring my painting practice inside. Until then, I’d painted only outside, en plein air, except for classes, since 2014. This morning, I sit on the futon in the room I call, with a bit of self-suspicion, “my studio”, and look hard at it.

Twice I’ve scraped it and started over. I may do so again. Two days ago, I stood in the Milwaukee Art Museum looking at Winslow Homer’s paintings in awe of the people he painted in the English fishing village of Cullercoats. Setting aside my surprise that Homer is actually American, and that I wonder if he picked that particular village because of its perfect-for-an-artist name, today, I wonder if my beekeeper isn’t the same story as the woman standing on rocks, above a tumultuous sea, a sail in the background, knitting. We viewers look up at her. She stands in the very middle of the picture… a frequently mentioned no no done well. Horizontally, she takes up the painting, her arm outstretched pulling on yarn from a skein in her apron. The painting foreground is no larger than the bottom of her shoe to her calf; the space from the top of her head into the sky, is that length plus up to her knee.

I know now, that’s “the story.” It’s the placement, the emphasis Homer gave her in space. The fishermen on the boat are not the story, her knitting is what she does while they are away. Her skirt billows like the boat’s sail. She’s as much a cog in the fishing village life as they are.  Like Ginger Rogers dancing all the same steps backwards without Fred Astair’s acclaim from the masses, she knits standing. My beekeeper needs a story. How do I know that? How do I do that?

I confess, I probably wouldn’t have known that was the issue with my painting, nor would have looked at Homer’s as critically, till discussions recently in the Palette and Chisel’s Fundamentals in Drawing andPainting class. Unfortunately for me, yesterday was the last day of that class. It’s a series, like college classes where you take 101 and learn basics about shapes, color, drawing, and 102 and 103 where they build on those knowledge and skills, and offer an understanding of what it really takes to create a successful piece of art. Yesterday was graduation.

I’m certainly not saying that now that I have completed the class I know exactly how to create the story. At best, I know I need to tell one. I am also saying that the difference from when I began 101 in March of last year through completing 102 and 103 is as if Fred had found Ginger a year before suffering from vertigo and never having danced. 

Until last March, I’d been struggling to move from hobbist to artist. Bob Krajecki and Dale Popovich the instructors who’ve taught this class together for years, gave me steps, not the choreography. I’d taken many classes and workshops, had dozens of critiques, but still couldn’t create a painting that I could envision as successfully completed. Fundamentals gave me language about art and about my art. It’s given me check lists, both in notes and in my head of how to start a piece, how to develop it, what to look for to complete it, and how to self critique it.

This post is as much a thank you to Dale and Bob. Though I’ve learned tons from previous instructors, it wasn’t until I had this core structure, did the previous teachings make sense.

I am grateful I came to the class with experience in painting, critiques and hours outside painting landscapes and cityscapes in wind, sun, rain, snow and fog. Those experiences teed up many aha! moments in class.  I’d heartily recommend this program at the Palette and Chisel for anyone who comes to painting, without formal training, no matter if they prefer, oils, watercolors or pastels. I don’t recommend it for those who aren’t willing to do the exercises or have a tendency to defend their finished pieces, it’s a place to learn from every nuance, not turn out masterpieces.

I received an email on Saturday, that a painting of mine sold from a plein air competition in Northbrook, IL. Currently, I have two paintings hanging for a year as “public works of art” in my home village of Deerfield, IL. These are signs of acknowledgement of my development as an artist since I began the class. My palette knife is ready to begin the third scrape, and I with the help of Krajecki, Popovich and Homer, the beekeeper’s story is about to be retold.

+++  

The following posts are in chronological order from most recent to the beginning of my journey since 2014 when I began to view myself as artist. 

• How to Pack for Plein Air Painting
• 2017 - Progress on Becoming an Artist
• The Trail to the Cedarburg Plein Air Event
• Your Creativity - Early or Late in Life? Quick or Never Done? Malcolm Gladwell makes sense of it
• Unpacking The Evolution of Learning and Mastery of the Creative Acts
• Self Confidence and the Up Hill Climb of Learning a New Craft
• Dabbling Is My Creative Process 2015
• You Calling My Art a Hobby? 2014

How to Pack for Plein Air Painting Travel that includes Flying

TSA at O’Hare found and tossed a small pocketknife engraved with my name, that I’d sadly “lost” nearly a year prior.  A discerning agent uncovered it from deep in the folds of my carry-on where it apparently had been traveling with me for at least five trips. The agent offered to let me leave security, send it to myself and come back through the line; I chose to make my flight instead. Since 2014, I’ve traveled to Cuba, Spain, Mexico, and several places within the USA with both oil and watercolor plein air gear and have had no other incident. Below, I’m passing along learnings from workshop leaders, other artists, and experience. You'll find a few links to sites that might be helpful too, and at the very end, links to other related articles.   

Avoid Confiscation: Some plein air equipment can be construed as weapons. Brushes, palette knives, tripod, umbrella, or a mall stick may strike the diabolical fancy of a security person, and, be removed from luggage. I’m not willing to risk the confiscation for two reasons: cost and whether replacement is possible. The art store in Havana in January 2018 offered for sale, no hyperbole here, one tube of black acrylic paint, some markers and a few books. In Spain, in a seaside town, I could only find Cotman watercolors, and only in a whole travel set, not individual tubes or pans. In Guanajuato, Mexico in 2017, there were two places to buy art supplies, though a meager selection at both. The owner of the one near the Diego Rivera museum is an artist, and at least understood my interests.  Bottom-line... pack as if your painting depended on it. 

Packing for an air-travel plein air adventure isn’t really so different than packing for a day’s paint out. What self-preserving plein air painter doesn’t already think about weight, size and safety? Packing for a painting trip boils down to space, weight, getting supplies through security and making sure you have the right clothes for the time you’re not painting. So first thing, know that checking a bag is the easiest route to take. I know, what frequent traveler wants to check and lug bags? As Nike says, just do it!

I pack for 5 – 21 days in a hard sided, 24” Samsonite bag I found at TJ Max, and a backpack with wheels I found online. I carry a small “clutch” so I have a purse on the ground and I have with me a tiny foldable cloth bag, in the event I shop during the trip. While traveling, my backpack contains TSA approved items including my 8"x10" Open Box M easel, clutch/wallet, iPad, and anything essential I would need if my bags didn’t arrive with me. Sometimes, an extra pair of shoes or overflow clothes end up in my backpack too. Once I get to the hotel, the contents of the backpack will be switched out for my art equipment and supplies. The selection criteria for the backpack included - large enough to hold all that, outside pockets on both sides, a water bottle and other stash, straps on both sides around the pockets, and, multiple pockets with separate sections. 

How much to pack? Just because you’re checking a bag, don’t fall into allowing yourself to pack as much as the airlines allows, (typically 40 or 50 pounds.) It’s just too cumbersome to handle. Remember too, if you are staying in an Air B&B, a small hotel or, if you arrive in say, Madrid, in the middle of a marathon and the marathon doesn’t allow a cab to cross a major intersection, or you arrive in New York, the day after the Trump election and a cab can’t get across Fifth Avenue because of angry marchers, you’re destined to do your own schlepping… for blocks, over cobblestones or up flights of stairs. Pack as luggable as possible. By the way, I have packed in larger bags, but it was the hour walk in Madrid, where I felt like I had completed an ultra marathon  that cured me of that.

How to pack? My 20” carry-on bag, which I use for as many as three days and holding mainly paint and casual clothes, opens to one compartment. My hard sided bag that I use for longer trips opens up with top and bottom compartments. I pack all clothes and my cosmetic kit on one side, shoes and art equipment on the other. I LOVE packing my clothes in travel cubes. I’ve tried a couple different brands and found the Eagle Creek compression sacks that have a double zipper are the best for me. The first zipper encloses the items; the second compresses them to take much less space. I have enough now to have discreet bags for undies, t-shirts and tops, pants, socks, sweaters, and miscellaneous one-ofs, like bathing suit, scarves. It’s so much easier to get dressed (especially, if you don’t want to wake a roommate) and keep things minimized and organized.

Packing to avoid confiscation: With the objective to minimize TSA’s likelihood of removing my supplies, I place my equipment in the main, “bottom” side of my two-sided bag. Once entirely packed, I place a printed note to inspectors on top of that side, held in by the bag’s elastic strap. I believe the original note was developed for Plein Air Magazine’s convention attendees. Here are words for it. I recommend that you make it fit a half page of paper, make it look official, and make several copies of it to place with your paints and (non) solvents.

Attention Airline Inspectors

The contents in this bag are professional artist materials. It contains vegetable based oil paints and wet paintings. Take care while inspecting to protect from getting paint on clothing. All of these materials have a flashpoint above 550*. They are not hazardous and not flammable. There are no solvents in this bag. Please do not discard paints, as they are expensive. 

If you need to reach me to confirm, please contact me:

Name:                                                 email:                                                  Phone/Text:

The note contains the word, “flashpoint”. That’s the temperature at which they ignite more easily and are therefore, hazardous. Low flashpoints mean that the liquids are most flammable. You want to make sure any item you are packing is below that flashpoint. Paint manufactures like Winsor Newton and Gamblin understand this and have individual safety sheets for their products listing the nature of any hazard. Go to the manufactures site download and print the health and safety sheets and place them in your bag. It’s as simple as googling “Gamblin Safety” and you’ll find a link immediately. If you usually use an essential oil instead of a solvent, Google that flashpoint. Many are below 300^0[1], and flammable, so plan to buy them when you arrive at your destination.

Paints: Place your paints together in one or more clear plastic bags. I use zippered bags that came with pillowcases, or, you can buy a zippered cosmetic bag, or use a large zip-lock. (I sometimes use those that come with dried fruit, because they are durable and narrow.) With a Sharpie I write, “Artist Colors”, (not oil paints) in big letters directly on what I call the front of the bag, making sure paint tubes can be seen plainly. Behind the paint, I place the folded safety sheets and turn them so the wording is on the outside. I envision someone picking up the bag and inspecting it, seeing nothing untoward and, repacking it nicely. By the way, I pack my paints in one direction and place them where they are most likely to be pointed downward to keep them from separating.

(non) Solvents: Recently, when eight of us flew to Havana to paint, all 4, 6 and 32 ounce bottles of Gamsol, were still in our bags when we arrived. Though we packed various sizes, it turns out, we all packed the safety sheets with the liquids. Again, I used the same heavy clear plastic bag for the liquids, I wrote Artist Materials on the bag and enclosed the safety sheets.  Remember to empty your brush washer before you go and stuff it with a rags or other supplies for transit. The TSA is very clear, no turpentine or paint thinners. 

Oil Panels: For eight days in Cuba, I decided I would likely paint six of the days, two a day. (I didn’t, but that was my reasoning.) I took six each of two sizes of panels (8x10” and 9x12”.). I took one 2-sided wood panel carrier for each size and packed wax paper for others. Next trip I’ll also take 11x14” panels and carrier as well.

Each painting session I painted one size and switched to the other for the next. Those paintings started early in the trip were dry to the touch by the time we left. So, I placed wax paper around them, taped a nickel to the wax paper, in the four corners between 2 facing each other and used large rubber bands I found at an office store, to hold them together.  I took this idea from a demo last summer by pastelist, Nancie King Mertz.

Panel carriers that hold more panels are commercially available. I tried a cardboard style early on, but it collapsed. StephanieWiedner, a member of Plein Air Painter Chicago has hacked other clever panel carriers by notching wine corks and placing them at each corner and securing them with rubber bands. Dana Johnson an artist in Wisconsin bought 2 flat-faced frames at the Dollar Store, glued them together facing each other. Voila’ a panel carrier for two paintings. She too used rubber bands to hold in the wet panels. By the way, I use my easel to hold panels during transit.

Watercolor painting: I use a piece of 14”x20” foam core, lightly scored and folded in half as my board for painting and as a file for holding pieces of paper. (I cut my board down a bit to fit in my backpack so corners won’t be smashed, but have learned that it’s limits the size of watercolor paper.) To prep the board I spray varnish the out side where I tape the paper, and once that’s dry, I place masking tape along the fold to reinforce it.  I use a 1” binder clip to keep the board and papers together. Depending on conditions, I use the clip to hold the watercolor paper, tape the corners or tape the entire paper down to make that pretty margin, but is eschewed by nearly every watercolor teacher I respect.

Easel and Palettes: The foam core board is light and works well with my Open Box M easel. I have now notch it for landscape and portraits to fit.  I often make two at a time because they do get beat up, but for the most part, they can last for months. However, because I use my easel for both oils and watercolor, I use a piece of plexiglass as a palette for my oils, removing it to insert my watercolor “travel” palettes which fit flat in the base. I simply interchange them.

Miscellaneous Plein Air supplies. Take rags and toss them. Buy papertowels and wet wipes when you arrive, if available, they weren’t in Cuba. If you are carrying paper towels, take the center roll out and flatten the roll of towels for packing. A soap carrier with a bar of Ivory makes it easy to clean brushes. The Dollar Store also offers tools like pliers, screwdriver and a wrench. It’s not easy to find them even in the US if you are out painting in the wilderness and your easel blows over, once, no twice, no three times and you have to de-jam a wingnut. In Cuba, our guide said that these were especially useful gifts to leave behind. In response to a packing list for a workshop in Spain with Timothy J. Clark recommended a Lafuma padded stool. It’s great for demos anytime. It fits in the suitcase, and, straps on to my backpack like a frame. In three years, I have used it to sit on for demos, not to paint, though I do use it as a table for my supplies. When it’s a table, I flip it so the underside of the seat is up, so later, for discussions or critique, I won’t sit down on a paint spatter.

Traveling and painting plein air is the lifestyle I’ve chosen for my “preferment”… my life since working full time. I’ve gotten a sense of organization, efficiency and ease that works for me, so I can take off with minimal planning. I love learning new ideas. I hope you will share yours.

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Other Related Blog Posts by Mary Longe
How to Carry Wet Paintings
The Trail to the Cedarburg Plein Air Festival
Unpacking the Evolution of Learning - Plein Air Trip to Spain
Self Confidence and the Uphill Climb of Learning a New Craft
The Challenge of Painting a Tree
Sketching Arizona
Arctitectural Artifacts, Chicago and Painting Like Hemingway
A Few Things I Learned from my Trip to Santa Fe, July 2015
[1] https://plushfolly.com/Information/Flash-Points