Travel painting kit

Summer season is upon us and many people will be travelling and may want to bring with them a small painting kit.

Traveling is about packing light and simple. The size of the basic kit depends on how much space you will have during your trip or even you plan on painting while on the plane.  The kit can change from trip to trip or remain very compact. One thing that I've learned is that you want to stay with brands that you are familiar with because it takes a while a get used to different brands such as paper.  The essential elements of a painting kit includes:

Small palette: my Mijello palette which was bought for travelling appears small compared to my studio palette, but it is quite cumbersome when sitting in a plane as I've learned from experience. However, it is my go to palette for other travel plans. For extra compact, I purchased this Cotman palette (right) and replaced the paints with my favorite brands.

Travel brushes: There are a number of options here that depend on how much space you have. The important thing is that you want to protect the bristles of your brushes.  For travelling, Escoda makes some beautiful very compact brushes in their own cases to protect the hairs. I have a very lovely set of these that I can vouch for. If you have more space, you can bring your regular brushes and wrap them in a case with a long stick or use a sushi matt with elastics.  I have friends who use the waterbrush (photo on right). I am not a fan of these.

Water container:  When travelling on a plane, I like to use a very small water bottle but remember to fill it up with water after you have cleared security.  You can also use a collapsible water bucket.  Sometimes, you may have the luxury of bringing a large plastic container.

Watercolour paper: there are two main choices for this, there are the favorite watercolour blocks which are glued on all four sides, eliminating the need to wet and stretch the paper before painting. Most importantly, the glue prevents the sheet from curling and buckling during painting.  Blocks come in all sizes. You can also use small pads which are as practical but come in very compact sizes.  Alternatively, you can cut your paper and bring only what you think you might need.

With a small watercolour paper pad, I have a travel kit that fits into a very small make-up bag that I can carry anywhere, even my purse if I have the desire to paint while having a coffee at Starbucks.

So why go through all of these products..... because I love watercolours and want to paint whenever I have the time, regardless of where I am.  It is also great to pass the time when on planes.

This week's artist find is Pat Weaver

Have a great week,
Danielle