Traveling With the Brand New Set Up

Six Vieques Paintings

I've already shared my six tropical paintings from Vieques, but I didn't talk about the challenge of painting with a complete change in my usual painting parameters. You'll take one look at the ultra-gorgeous scene I painted that first day and most likely have zero sympathy when I state that it was difficult to get started.  Okay, yes, I'm thinking of that old saying,  "a bad day of fishing beats a great day at the office."

So in the context of being fortunate and grateful to even be on this trip, I'll say that there were challenges. Among them:

• A new lightweight easel (disassembled for flight) 
• A new palette board (no familiar color spots marking my usual placements)
• Unfamiliar hardware used to attach the palette to new easel

  

  Not Exactly Travelling Light

• Stark white, non-toned substrates (usually I use toned surfaces).
• No turpentine (not allowed by security)
• Tropical colors! No recipes on the brain  (especially for that dazzling turquoise ocean)

Yes I suffered through it :)  item by item...

• Once the new easel was put together on Day One, it didn't need to be disassembled again until it was time to fly home.   The assembled easel stowed easily in the back of the rented Jeep for the duration of the trip. 
• The newly cut (and lightweight) 12x16x.25 inch birchwood panel travelled well and though it took some time initially, it felt no different than my heavyweight palette at home once populated with the oil colors.



Modified Aluminum Easel

• The new aluminum easel had "L" brackets attached with couplings that slid up and down on its respective tripod leg.   Three matching drilled holes in the birch palette lined up with three "L's" on easel legs.  See the three red arrows in photo that shows modified easel that allows palette panel to sit in between tripod.
• I typically apply a neutral undertone over the white canvas and let it dry at least overnight.  All the canvases I brought on this trip were stark white and I discovered that because everything here was so brightly lit, the white surface helped me maintain a high, clear color key.
• Oil painting without turpentine was tough.   I wiped my brushes often and used my walnut oil to clean them as well.   This wasn't an acceptable workaround though, and we located the local hardware store where we purchased a small can for $7.
• Color matching was a matter of trial and error.    I had brought the right ingredients (Cerulean blue, pthalo blue, emerald green).  It was a matter of blending these in the right amounts and combinations.    By Day Two - the required rework was reduced somewhat.

So that is the story.  What I didn't cover here about traveling with the oils is the packing and flying, which I'll share in a future post.  If anyone has questions about the customizations to the easel, the palette or color combinations, let me know and I'll be happy to share more.