Five things I learned from an Art Road Trip

'Flying High'      5x7    pastel      ©Karen Margulis
available $75

We must have said the same thing every day. At some point in the day Marsha and I would look at one another and exclaim how blessed we were to have the opportunity to do what we love. The chance to travel and paint and teach with a great friend was a trip of a lifetime. We spent 17 days driving over 2000 miles and living out of a suitcase (or two). I came away from the experience filled with inspiration and enriched more than I can possibly express.

Yesterday I wrote about the five ways that I was enriched by attending the Plein Air Convention. Today I'd like to share five ways the road trip out west enriched my life as an artist. Enjoy my thoughts that are in no particular order of importance.

a collage of beautiful skyscapes captured from the car

1. Have your camera ready at all times!
We both had our cameras out and ready to shoot at all times. I got some of my favorite shots of the trip from the car as we drove at 70 mph. I love taking photos and not just for painting references so keeping my camera ready was a must!

Packing as light as I could for 17 days of painting and teaching

2. Pack Light....and then reevaluate and pack even lighter!
It is my goal to pack light but I am also the type of person who needs to be prepared for anything. That mindset tends to be anti-light!  Added to the fact that we needed extra supplies to teach a workshop added to the load. We laughed when we needed two bell carts to get all of our gear to the convention hotel. In hindsight I could have done without a lot of what I brought. Packing light should be a priority because it gives you so much freedom....and less to keep up with.  It is now my goal to cut my load in half for the next trip.

We managed with just two bell carts!

My suitcase exploded! The aftermath of 5 busy convention days!

3. Bring a sketchbook
There is always room for a small sketchbook and a pencil and if you pack it just right you can even put together a small kit with watercolors,pens and pencils. I enjoyed the time we took to simply sit in a beautiful spot and sketch. I know that when I look at these sketches I can recall every detail of the place more intensely than looking at a photo of the same place. A sketchbook is worth it's weight in gold.

sketching the bluebonnets in Texas

sketching the saguaros in the Saguaro National Park

4. Bring some good snacks
You never know what food you'll find on the road so a bag of good snacks is important. One night after 9 hours on the road we just didn't feel like going back out to eat so we relied on our trusty snack bag for some apples and peanut butter.  Good snacks made the road trip better. ( I will admit that I was tired of apples and peanut butter after 17 days but they did serve a good purpose!)

Road food

5. Don't forget a small pastel kit
I had my sketchbook. I had my larger Heilman box and tripod for the convention and workshop so I wasn't sure if I needed to throw in my smaller Heilman sketchbox. I packed it at the last minute and I sure am glad I did! There were days when I just didn't feel like dragging out my tripod and getting set up. It was easy to find a spot, open the sketchbox and paint. I will never leave this kit at home again. It took up little space and was always ready if I found time to paint.

I brought my sketchbox to the Old Tucson paint out.

It was a fantastic experience. I encourage everyone to plan a road trip with art friends. It doesn't have to be an epic 17 day adventure. Even getting away for an overnight with like minded friends will be something that you will always cherish.

If you missed our trip report head over to www.twowanderingartists.com for the full report.

The Best Tool For Traveling Artists

'Caribbean Blues'              8x10            pastel          ©Karen Margulis
painting available on Etsy $125

Checklists are critical. They help me stay organized. They help me plan. They help me prioritize my day so I can be productive.  I especially rely on my checklists when I am going on a trip. It doesn't matter if it is a dedicated panting trip , the lists help me remember all the stuff I need to do and bring with me.

Every time I make a new trip to do and packing list I tell myself I should type it up and save it for the next trip. I am a pen and paper person so I like to write out my lists. So I never save them and I have to start all over again every time I travel.

This time I gave in to technology....surely there is a packing app for my iPhone?  Of course! There are many. I just needed to choose one!

I chose the app TRIP LIST by Enabled Apps (free version). It was mentioned in a recent issue of Travel and Leisure magazine so I gave it a try last night.

'In the Shade'           8x10        pastel   $125

Wow! I had so much fun making my packing list for my trip to Lake Tahoe this week. It was easy to start the list using the built in catalog of items that I might need. The catalog is divided into usual categories such as clothes, medicine, toiletries, outdoors as well as a to-do list. But what I loved about the app is that I could edit the items, add items, add details about the items and even add new categories.

If you are an artist and want to paint or do art while traveling then you need to have a additional items to pack. This app allows us to create categories for our art supplies and add these items to our packing lists.  With the Pro edition you can make and save lists as templates and then for each new trip you can adjust the items you want on the list. Now there is no excuse for forgetting an important supply....it's on the list!

 The app has other helpful features:

• Unlimited number of packing lists or check lists. Besides a packing list, you can also make checklists of things to do before a trip or even shopping lists.
• The app allows you to set reminders and alarms...for example why not set a reminder to check-in online for your flight?
• You can check off items as you pack them so only what you need will show (so much nicer than a messy written list)

I am giving this app a bigs thumbs up. I consider a checklist an important part of a successful painting trip. This app makes packing for a trip or plein air outing fun and easy! Never forget something important again!

What Daily Road Trip Paintings Did for Me

'A Beautiful Journey'          8x10          pastel       ©Karen Margulis
purchase painting in my Etsy shop $145 HERE

 On the road for 24 days and 23 road trip paintings done. The trip was a great experience that was only enhanced by taking the time to do a daily painting.  I will be writing all about what made it easy and fun to do but today I wanted to share my thoughts on how doing these painting have helped inspire me.

This morning I took the time to photograph each painting. I put them on a large piece of  foam core so that I could see them all in the order that I painted them. I was interested in seeing how they changed from day one to day 23. I discovered that something happened mid way through the trip.  I began to get bolder and more colorful in my approach. Look at the first and last road trip paintings below.

'Distant Mountain Blues'    5x7   plein air pastel #1

'Sedona Wetlands Path'      5x7      plein air pastel #23

The painting at the top of the page was done today in the studio from one of my photos taken as we approached Albuquerque. We had stopped at a rest area and I painted my first road trip painting at the picnic shelter (see above)  I thought that it would be fun to paint my first studio painting after the trip from the same place as my first road trip painting.  I discovered that I saw the place with different eyes.

• After a month in the Southwest I was more relaxed.
• I saw more color
• I felt more confidence in painting what I saw
• I understood the landscape better. We were no longer strangers.
• I felt more freedom to interpret what I saw and interject my emotions into the scene.

I believe that painting this landscape everyday helped me understand it better. I was constantly looking and thinking about how I would paint it but actually doing it and choosing colors really helped to reinforce what I was thinking. Taking 20-30 minutes each day to paint helped me utilize all of my senses. By the end of the month I had totally immersed myself in this beautiful landscape and felt the freedom to paint it as I saw it.

Now that I am back in the studio I can't wait to see what else develops!

What You Should do After a Workshop or Trip

'Summer Storm Variation'        5x7       pastel      ©Karen Margulis

I arrived home last night after 24 days on the road. It was a fantastic trip! Thank you to all of you who followed along with us through the blog and facebook. It was a pleasure to share our adventure.  But now it is back to reality.  I am running around today catching up, cleaning house and doing errands. I haven't even had the chance to unpack and see my daily paintings and other treasures I found.

It is frustrating.  I want to forget about all of the chores and upload all my photos.  I want to paint some of the impressions I have of the Southwest.....while they are fresh.  I don't want life to get in the way and distract me. The trip was so inspiring that it would be a shame to have to plunge into daily life and leave it all as a sweet memory.

We talked about this dilemma on the trip.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a week or more after a workshop or an inspiring trip to do nothing but paint. Wouldn't it be great to have access to a quiet studio with absolutely no distractions or obligations....so that you could practice what you learned....or paint what you have been thinking about as you traveled?  It would be nice.....but not very realistic for most of us....So here is what I plan to do so that I can make the most of my trip:

• Use the travel time home to make a plan for your art. Write down painting ideas, things you want to try, supplies you need. Also write down all of the follow up and errands you need to get done. I find that if I get it all out of my head and down on paper I feel less cluttered.

• Spend the first day or two home and get all of the chores and errands out of the way. Don't be tempted to sit and go through your trip things or worse start going through photos. Use this as the reward for working hard and getting caught up with the household stuff.

• Get the house cleaned if you can afford it. I can't but as I cleaned house today I thought about how nice it would be to cross this chore off my list. But I know I will paint better if the house and studio are in order. 

• PHOTOS: if you come home from a trip with thousands of photos like I did be sure to have a plan for them. Download them and back them up.  For this trip I used a new memory card for each leg of the trip rather than one big memory card. This way I wont lose all of my photos should something happen to the card.  I will be creating a folder on my computer for each leg of the trip. I will eventually create photos for various subjects but I don't want to spend too much time organizing photos instead of painting. ( more on this later)

• Have a collection of photos printed to use for references. I plan to choose 100 photos to have printed to start with. I usually print my own photos but I have so many this time I just want to quickly go through them and choose the first 100 that jump out at me. (I have a coupon for 100 free photos at costco)

 I need to get back to my chores so I can get back into the studio tomorrow. I plan to blog more about my trip and review some of the things that helped make it great so stay tuned or feel free to ask any questions!

Today's painting was chosen for a BLICK's ad in the September Pastel Journal. It is one of my favorite paintings form my 100 variation series. I am excited that Blick's chose my painting for an ad!

Sedona Wetlands and Climbing Red Rocks

'Desert Oasis'. 5x7. Pastel

We have to say goodbye to Sedona and make our way back home to Georgia. But we made it a great day. Holly and I started the day by hiking t o the top of the Airport Vortex. Well she went to the top. I stopped a bit shy. I'll blame it on on my shoes but I am not a big fan of sheer cliffs an steep drop offs.

Next we went to a wonderful little spot in Sedona recommended by the lady in the bird store. It is called the Sedona Wetlands and is a series of ponds created from reclaimed waste water . It is still a work in progress but it is a beautiful spot of green and blue among all of the red rocks. I did three daily paintings based on the Sedona Wetlands.

'Wetland Trails'. 5x7. Pastel

'Summer Sunshine'. 5x7. Pastel

I admit that I didn't paint these on location. It was getting very hot and there was no shade. Instead I came back to the cottage and sat on the patio to paint. I looked at my camera display. It really isn't a bad way to simplify a painting because you sure can't see much detail on a camera display!

Here are some photos of the wetlands. I was happy to spot three Black Crowned Night Herons!

And lots of happy little sunflowers.

 

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Sedona By Day....Painting on the Deck with my New Terry Ludwigs

'Path to Bell Rock'. 5x7. Pastel

We have fallen into a rhythm in Sedona. I planned the trip with this in mind. Five days to relax and let the beauty of the trip sink in before going back to our routines. We rise early and take our coffee out onto the deck. This morning we had another visit from the quail family! We do a morning excursion and come back to cool off in the heat of the day.

'Morning in Sedona'. 5x7. Pastel

And then I paint. Today I painted three daily paintings. I would have painted all afternoon but the sun encroached upon my shade!

'A Promising Day'. 5x7. Pastel

I decided to take out some of the new pastels I bought at IAPS. They were tucked away in the car. I had put together a set of 30 Terry Ludwig pastels of colors that I thought might be useful for the Southwest. Oh did I have fun with them! I have his SW and Arid Landscape sets at home and they are wonderful too. I think I am now set when I get home to paint from my reference photos!

Painting on the patio with my road kit an new TL pastels

We end the day with a glass of wine as we watch the light change our view. We discuss how we would paint it. Then we'll walk the grounds looking for birds and other treasures before the official sunset. It's a great way to spend a day.

 

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Vortexes and Birds...another day in Sedona

'The Morning Visitor'. 5x7. Pastel

Today was for the birds. That's a good thing for us! we love the birds and so we were pleasantly surprised by the Gambel Quail family that show up while we had our morning coffee. First daddy quail came into view to check it out. We had out down some seed. Then he called for mommy and over she scooted with about 15 babies in tow.

Are they rocks or baby quail?

Close up of baby quail

We spent the morning visiting some of Sedona's birding hotspots. We loved the Page Springs fish hatchery. We saw some birds but I loved the landscape.....meadows, ponds, pathways,great trees! This place has it all and if it hadn't been so hot I would have loved to paint there.

We got back to the cottage to an amazing blue sky with the most interesting swirling clouds. Could they be the result of the famous Sedona vortexes? I decided to paint the clouds and I did portrait of Daddy Quail too. Later today we will go visit one of the vortexes. I'll keep you posted!

'Swirling Skies'. 5x7. Pastel

 

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Shades of Blue....Our Day in Sedona

'Mountain View'. 5x7. Pastel over watercolor

It was a long leisurely day of soaking it all in. We were up at dawn and had an early morning walk up on airport Mesa . The grounds of our hotel are beautifully landscaped and we had great photo opportunities. We spent the morning visiting Crescent Moon Park and doing some errands. Back at our cottage I decided to take out my watercolors.

For my daily painting I decided to focus on the blues of the distant mountains instead of the red rocks. I did a watercolor under painting first. The painting took on a life of it's own as I reset the pastel and added some shaved yellow flowers inspired by the gardens here at the hotel.

Here is a photo of our view to the left

The wonderful variations of blues in the cliffs and mountains

This evening we sat on the patio and watched the sunset while we ate our dinner. As the colors in the sky faded the twinkling light of Sedona began to come on in the valley below. We discussed how we would paint it....what colors to use, how to make the lights glow, where to put the harder edges. It was very satisfying to watch it all unfold and let it soak in. Tomorrow night we will paint it!

I'll be posting more photos from our day on facebook so check them out if you'd like to see our encounters with the birds and the bees!

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It's All About the Sunset....Grand Canyon to Sedona

'Making Friends'. 5x7. Pastel

I'm back on the grid after spending the night at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had a cabin with a partial rim view but since it had no porch with a view we decided to stay only one night. Yes we have been spoiled with wonderful views. And in Sedona we will have another great view from our cottage on the rim at Sky Ranch Lodge. Tonight I painted the view from their sunset overlook. We met the nicest ladies and their daughters and we all enjoyed a beautiful sunset. I can get used to this!

Our Sedona View that I painted this evening

'Cabin on the Rim'. 5x7. Pastel

Above was yesterday's daily painting done from the steps of our cabin at the Grand Canyon Lodge. We did enjoy sitting on the patio of the lodge watching the colors in the canyon change as the sun set.

 

Sunset at the Grand Canyon Lodge

Sunset at the Sky Ranch Lodge in Sedona

Tomorrow we move into our rim cottage. Since we're day early we are in a regular room. But we will have a fun day exploring Sedona. Stay tuned!

 

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The Majesty of Zion....Deciding What to Paint

 

'Hillside Symphony'. 5x7. Pastel. Karen Margulis

There is no lack of painting inspiration in Zion National Park. The difficulty lies not in finding something to paint but in choosing from an overwhelming visual feast. Do I want to paint the grand view or the close up vignettes? If time allows it is nice to try both. And that is just what we did today.

'Entering Zion'. 5x7. Pastel

Today we had the luxury of time. I planned this trip last year. I chose the route and picked out the lodging ( of course with the approval of my travel mates) My goal was to spend at least 2 nights at each place with some 3 and 4 night stays sprinkled in. I knew Zion and the Desert Pearl Inn would be a good place to spend extra time, so today was a day to paint.

It was easy to find a place to paint this morning because the view from the coffee shop was everything I needed! Beautiful light and textures. We got our supplies and found a bench. I was in a very colorful mood....maybe because I could see the colors of my pastels! Here is the view....

 

I also painted this afternoon and used my new Sennelier portrait set which gave me a more subdued painting, I'll post them tomorrow. We head to the Grand Canyon North Rim tomorrow and I'm not sure about Internet so I will post as soon as I can!

 

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Cleaning Pastels While Traveling

'Summer Color'. 5x7. Pastel

After two weeks on the road it's time to get clean. Yesterday was laundry day and today it was tome to clean my pastels. I love my little travel kit. It has been so easy to take out and quickly paint. But being jostled around in a box for two weeks can lead to very dirty pastels. In fact I didn't even realize how dirty they were until I cleaned them today.

 

Here is a before shot. Dusty and dirty! I had forgotten to bring along a rag to keep them wiped and the paper towels are never handy so they were desperate for a cleaning. I found a perfect cleaning solution. We are staying right on the Virgin River just outside of Zion National park. I noticed yesterday that the riverside was a very fine soft pink sand. Perfect for pastel cleaning.

I filled a ziplock bag with the sand. Then I transferred the dirty pastels into my box lid. I added a few pastels at a time into the bag of sand, gently shook the bag.....a little like shake and bake. The pastel are then squeaky clean. I put them back in the box looking better than new!

 

It was very hot today ...in the 100's! So I wanted to find some shade for my daily painting. For a change from the cliffs nd rocks I decided to paint the gardens in front of our hotel. Tomorrow I will get up early to paint before it gets too hot! Zion is very beautiful though and I have taken many photos!

Just a reminder.....all daily paintings are available by auction on Daily Paintworks. The link is at the top of the page. Also I post more trip photos on Facebook so be sure to friend me to see more!

 

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