He all, just arrived in Kauai today for my workshop this week with Camille Przwodek! I hope to blog from here daily, but don’t hold me to it, the first priority is painting! Right? In two weeks, I study with Mark Kerckhoff in Palm Springs, yet another great expressive colorist. Stay tuned.
Kauai – 6:45PM – Feb-24-2008
But you’re going to be painting from dawn to sunset if these colours are anything to go by!
Ed,
I just found your great Blog Site the other day.
I passed it on to all my plein air friends in the
Chicago area. I love Kauai and have many friends
on the Island, I will be reading your blog every day.
Ed, I’ve never tried Classic Artist Oils before
that you have recommend.
It sounds like you buy your paint in the large
tubes. These sound good for studio use, but
not convenient for plein air. I would like your
thoughts on this.
Tom
Tom, you’re correct, I buy the large 10oz tubes for the studio. It’s very economical. I used to buy empty 4 ounce tubes and fill it with paint from the large ones, but over time got tired of that (need more time painting, less preparing studio equipment!) and now just buy their 4 once for the field, which is still more economical than buying another brand…although, it’s a bit heavy, especially given the full spectrum of colors I use.
Hope this helps. Welcome to my blog.
I also use the Classic Artist Oil paints, and what some people do is preload their palette with some of the colors they don’t need a lot of, so they don’t have to bring those tubes with them, and then they only bring some of the key colors they tend to use a lot of. All my tubes are more than 50% used right now so they don’t take up a lot of room and aren’t heavy… I’m still sort of fiddling with my plein air setup… I use a toolbox, and have a Mabef full french style easel, and a backpack (for umbrella, apron, etc…) I feel like I lug too much stuff out into the field. I just bought a Guerilla thumb-box and have not tried it yet. Would love to hear what your setup is, Ed, what do you take out into the field? Love this blog, by the way, I’m burning my entire morning reading it and cannot tear myself away.
Hi Diane B: yes, getting the right setup in the field is an incredible challenge. I touch on it here and there on my blog. I should really create a link for “Equipment”, as it does come up often.
So what do I do? Depends. I generally paint out of the trunk of my car. I keep the big caulking gun tubes there, and yes, I do pre-load my palette. But, if I decide to hike a ways from my car, I’ll bring a small bag of paint as well. These are the small tubes of Artist Oils which are more expensive per once, but there are times you need to carry light-weight tubes. I only use those tubes if I’m far away from my car.
I used to buy empty paint tubes and fill them with paint from the large caulking gun tubes, but this takes time and I have less time to paint, so instead fork out the money for the extra smaller tubes. If you have the time to fill tubes, it’s a pretty good economical solution.
Hope this helps!