Packing Pastels for a Cruise

'Back to the Islands'              8x10          pastel             ©Karen Margulis
available for purchase $155

Painting my World is living up to it's name.  It seemed like a good blog name at the time I started this blog. I was sharing the paintings that were inspired by my travels even if they only took me a few miles from home. These days I am fortunate that I get to travel farther from home.  After a Caribbean cruise next week I will be gearing up for my trip to Iceland at the end of June.

Packing my pastels for both trips presents a challenge. They are both very different trips with different painting agendas. I have two piles of supplies....one for the cruise and one for Iceland. I finally decided on my cruise set up and I thought I'd share it . (I'll be sharing my Iceland set up soon)

My Caribbean pastels 

Everything I need to paint fits in this soft sided lunch box

I love to paint while I am on a cruise but I only paint small 2.5x3.5 or 5x7's.  I want my kit to be extremely portable. I want to be able to throw it in my beach bag and bring it up on deck or even on the islands. I don't want to drag around an easel or tripod.  I want everything I need to be on ONE Bag. I have tested this lunch box set up and it is perfect!

• This soft sided lunch box holds a 5x7 foam core backing, some bulldog clips for attaching paper to the board, a selection of papers in 2.5x3.5 and 5x7, a small photo album to store the finished paintings, two small boxes of pastels, a washcloth to protect the tables or chairs, and a pack of wipes.

• Pastel selection: I packed two small Terry Ludwig boxes (I save ALL of my pastel boxes) filled with an assortment of small pieces of pastels...mostly Ludwigs and Great Americans but probably others. My main concern was to get a good assortment of darks, lights and middle values and a balance of intense colors and grayed colors. I have taken just one box and had plenty but I am going to try two boxes this time.

Have you tried my Caribbean Beach pastel Demo yet?  I cover my approach to painting a tropical beach scene complete with tips on painting sky, sand and water. It is available as a PDF download in my Etsy shop for just $6. Click here for details.