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Monday, November 17, 2014

Painting on the Go with a Small Travel Kit


'Beauty in the Bush'. 5x7. Pastel. sold
You never know when you might have some downtime. And when there is downtime I am itching to paint. It has been a busy few days visiting my son, daughter-in-law and grandbaby in Chicago. Yesterday we braved the cold and snow and went for two long walks in the neighboring park and at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I was in heaven. The snow made a wonderful backdrop for the lingering fall color and the emerging winter colors. My timing was perfect (and I did make a wish for a little snow)
One of my favorite sights was a big fat Cardinal in the middle of a purple Beauty Berry bush. He sat for my photos content to get his fill of berries. I knew I wanted to paint him. So when we decided to make today a stay at home day I was content to pull out my Mini pastel kit and paint the cardinal.
My small travel kit has gotten a lot of mileage. It is actually a book cover that zips closed. Inside I can fit everything I need to paint 5x7 and smaller. I have two small boxes filled with assorted pastel pieces. I make sure I have a variety of colors in a range of values. If I don't have the right color I will at least have the right value.
Today it was much too cold for plein air so I used my iPad mini to pull up my Cardinal photos and worked inside where it was warm and cozy. As always I am glad I threw my travel kit into my backpack!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

So cool Karen, you really should try to get over to Alta Vista St in Chicago. You will not regret it. Just look it up on your phone and you won't have a problem finding it. It is only about 2 blocks long, but it will feel like you've stepped into another century.

robertsloan2art said...

Gorgeous painting! I'm glad you brought your Mini kit on your family trip. That totally rocks.

Even at home without travel, field kits are sometimes just the thing for me on bad weather days. If I'm not up to moving things around and setting up a larger range of pastels, I grab my Rembrandts off the top of the stack and paint. Then when I do go out I have them with in case I have time to paint.

Compact kits have an advantage for any situation where you might have a bit of time but be limited in space.

Unknown said...

Thanks Karen - so good to see how others organise themselves. Great blog

Anonymous said...

I'd love to learn more about your "travel kit" - thanks. Looks like the perfect thing to just carry with you any place. Such a great, liberating idea. Suzy

Karen said...

Hi Suzy, thanks for asking. If you do a search on my blog for travel kits there are several posts about my small kits!