Aug 10 2009

Tips for Travelling Artists

A good friend of mine has just returned from a trip to the Far East.  Not wanting to fall foul of airline baggage rules, he travelled out with his painting kit but no turps or white spirit. To help him buy some locally, he had translated the words for white spirit and paint thinner via the internet before he went.

After a long trawl through many shops, he was eventually offered a bottle of strange smelling liquid and off he went to do some painting.  Setting up in front of his chosen view, he carefully set out his paints on the palette and decanted some of his newly aquired “white spirit”. 

As he began to lay in the first washes of colour a strange thing started to happen.  The paint curdled then bubbled and eventually started to eat through the gesso priming of his board. Then it dawned on him – he was mixing his colours with paint stripper!

To save him from embarrassment, I won’t name him (yet!) but if you would like to share your tips for successful travelling with oil paints - or even share a few of your own disaster stories - please email me or leave a comment.

1 comment   |  tags: | posted in Advice for Artists

May 14 2009

Caution Wet Paint

Raindrops on my palette
Raindrops on my palette

This evening I found myself rushing to try and finish a picture before the rain started.  I was set up on a hill and could see the rain sweeping towards me across the valley.

The rain won on this occassion.  I often finish pictures in the rain and sometimes even start them in the rain. Working in oils it is possible to carry on in quite bad weather  when my watercolour colleagues have long packed up.
It is quite easy to remove enough water from the palette to keep painting just by giving it a good shake (remember to remove the dipper first).  In theory the paint stays in place and the water slides off. In practice, well, that depends on how much you like to thin your paint.
If you have any tips or comments on painting in adverse onditions you can add them using the comments link below.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Advice for Artists, On Location