Three Things to Do Immediately After a Trip

'When Summer Slips into Fall'           11x15            pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $225

An epic adventure needs to be savored. There needs to be a time of reflection and quiet. A time to take a deep breath and let the memories come. Little visual snippets to be enjoyed and processed before the reality of every day life hits.  I always say it would be nice to have a few days after a trip to do nothing but paint, look at pictures and reflect. This time I returned home on a holiday weekend so I do have some free time.

 Sometimes it just isn't possible. Work and responsibilities are calling.  If you are able to spare a day or two after a trip I recommend  that you do three things.

The underpainting for the first painting of Norway!

• Take out the paintings you did on the trip. This sounds silly but all to often once we get back into our daily life the paintings we did get put in a pile and are never appreciated. These paintings no matter how well they turned out are a true piece of the trip. You put your heart and soul into painting them. You braved weather and experienced the scene with all of your senses. They need to be used. I tape my plein air studies on a big piece of foam core so I can see them as a group. Then I will use each one as a study for a larger studio work. DON'T WAIT to look at these paintings. Take them out right away. Plan to use them! On my recent cruse I didn't do any pastel paintings. Instead I filled a sketchbook with ink and watercolors sketches. I will use them as inspiration!

Ready to put photos in an album

• Do something with the photos you took. One of the first things I do when I get home from a trip is download my photos and back them up. I also don't ever delete them off the card. I want at least three backups of my photos and I don't want to wait. I don't want to risk misplacing the card!   Next, do something with the photos. Print some out to use for painting references. Make a slideshow on your computer or tablet or YouTube. My Iceland trip deserved an extra step. A real photo album! Remember those?  I used a coupon and uploaded 200 photos to Walgreens and picked up my photos an hour later (I needed to go out for groceries anyway)  Nothing like almost instant gratification. I even lucked out and found a perfect photo album at the thrift store...brand new and sealed!  Tonight I will fill the album and share my trip with family over the weekend.

• Unpack your Suitcase and do a load of Laundry. You will feel productive and it really does need to be done. I unpacked all non clothing items and put them on a table so I can sort and put away at my leisure. It was more fun to look at my paintings and photos than unpack so I compromised!