28 Jul 2013

My kit for painting outside

I follow a number of blogs of other daily or plein air painters and often come across posts about their kit and equipment. In comparison to most mine is minimal. This was an important criteria for me, lugging bags of gear across a boggy landscape and setting up an easel in cold or windy weather was not going to encourage me to keep up my daily challenge. I also love dinky things, such as the flask, which I had to buy as soon as I saw it. I started off with a dinky pochade box and bought a bag to fit it in. The box holds my paints, brushes, canvas and pallet and everything else fits in the bag. It’s light to carry and also fits in my bicycle panniers. It is quick to set up and so far (after only 20 paintings) it works for me. My pochade box holds just one canvas, so if I want to do a few paintings before returning home I take my folding clay-pigeon stool containing my kit, my lunch and a wet canvas carrier. The other thing is deciding what to wear! I’ll save images of my fashionable painting wardrobe for another post when I brave the winter weather. But when it’s dry I just sit on a plastic bag, wear an old shirt and put a tea towel on my lap. Most of the time I manage to remain fairly clean, that is unless I forget to tie up my hair – I then get paint all over my face from pushing hair out of my eyes (hence the wetwipes!). Next month I'll share my painting process and the materials I use.


The phone is for timing, the temperature and posting an in-situ photo on facebook


This is my dinky thumb box - see my thumb inside
(the first time I opened the lid I jumped out of my skin, forgetting it was my thumb!)


7 comments:

PatsyColchester said...

I'm loving this attention to detail Angela and sharing all those little bits of information that mean so much. x

PaintingWrite said...

Oh Angela you do make me laugh - I could just see you jumping at your own thumb!! I love this little box - do they come for folk who are left-handed to stick their right thumbs through??
By the way what is gamsol in lidded dipper - please say it's to do with oils so I won't feel like an ignorant artist!!

angela j simpson said...

Nic - I'll find you a pochade box ! Gamsol is odourless thinner which you don't need for acrylics - but you'd could put water in your dipper.

Pat - you and Nic know I'm mad, so does everyone else now xx

Tom McQuiggan said...

Beautiful pochade box (I have one too) but it's not quite 8"x6" is it? I was quite annoyed when mine arrived and I found that all the 8x6" boards I'd bought prior to it arriving, wouldn't fit because the Jullian boards are wider. Anyway, rather than purchase their over-priced boards, I made an adapter to accept the cheaper (and readily available) 8x6".

It's a beautiful box though :-)

angela j simpson said...

I've adapted my box as well - I plan to post about that soon !

Tom McQuiggan said...

Well Angela, I've just spent some time (actually much longer than my lunch break permits, lol) looking through your work and especially through your Daily Pochade blog. EXCELLENT WORK! I am so envious of your ability to get to grips with oils so quickly.

You obviously have fantastic drawing skills and your pastel work is to die for, but the pochades are what interest me most. The idea of working outdoors, producing quick, colourful sketches appeals greatly to me.

Artists such as yourself, provide beginners like me with GREAT inspiration. Thank you!! :-)

angela j simpson said...

Wow - that's very nice of you, thankyou! Working outdoors didn't go so well today - I got soaked, so much so the oils wouldn't stick to the canvas - I now know when to do a still life instead!