plein air paint kit
Design follows function: the first step is to identify your functional requirements. I wanted a kit that would pack snugly in a small size (backpacks are too big and jumble up like a purse), be light enough to carry in one hand, unpack and pack up quickly, hold all the supplies I need (including paper and even water), and be durable enough to withstand the rigors of air travel and outdoor hiking.
Paint Kit. The bag I chose is a coarse black canvas Panodia tote bag, flat and rectangular in the same dimensions as a laptop computer bag (roughly 14x12x4" when packed), available from Pearl Paint and other art retailers. The bag contains two compartments: a large main compartment that opens with a single zipper along the top (handle) side, and a second black plastic coated compartment along the side that opens as a flap zippered along three edges; stitched inside the flap are several narrow pockets for pencils or pens.
the complete field kit (unpacked)
My field brush selection has shrunk over time, as field painting normally doesn't provide the time or inspiration for fussy brushstroke distinctions. Large contrasts are the key. I carry a range of 5 sable rounds (#4 to #12 in even sizes), 4 natural hair flats (1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1"), a set of acrylic aquarelles (1/4", 1/2", 3/4") for aggressive brushwork, a rigger, a sable fan (for drybrush grass or earth textures), and an ox bristle brush (for loosening or lifting the pan pigments).
This may seem like more brushes than necessary (and for any single painting it is), but I find I have use for them all, depending on subject or style. I don't carry my best brushes in the field kit, as working with dry pan paints will wear out brushes pretty fast (the cakes act as tiny grindstones, especially the cobalt, viridian, and yellow iron oxide paints), and there is always a chance that the kit will be lost or stolen. (Unfortunately my bag, closed up, is indistinguishable from a laptop computer bag.)
Field Paint Box. After much trial and error, the paint box I settled on is the enameled metal (aluminum) folding dry pan palette cranked out somewhere by some unsung art materials sheet metal shop and sold by Rembrandt, Schmincke, Maimeri, Lukas, Blockx and Winsor & Newton (in the UK) as watercolor half or whole pan field sets.
The plein air tradition remains strong in Europe, so pan sets and metal folding palettes, which can be somewhat hard to find in the USA, are readily available through European retailers. The empty boxes are available for about $31 from Ken Bromley art supplies — look for Metal Tin Boxes for Whole and Half Pans in the Palettes section of the Online Store; the Rembrandt web site describes empty metal palettes in various sizes and you can email them to find out how to purchase one. Or you can buy a Schmincke, Lukas or Rembrandt 18 whole pan or 36 half pan set and replace the pans with the smaller Winsor & Newton whole pans as you deplete them.
Although designed to accommodate 18 whole pan or 36 half pan colors (the sets may be listed either way), I discovered that these palettes will snugly hold 21 Winsor & Newton or Lukas whole pan colors, or 21 of the empty plastic pans sold by most art retailers. (The pans from other manufacturers, including Schmincke and Rembrandt, are slightly too large.) Whole and half pans can easily be mixed in this kind of kit.
The box exterior is usually painted black, with three rows of spring metal clasps to grip whole or half pan paints. There are 4 large mixing wells on the inside of the opened lid, and a flat mixing panel hinged on the opposite side with 10 small mixing bays. The paint clasps are riveted to a metal tray that lifts out of the case, if necessary, to reveal more enameled mixing areas in the bottom of the box. You can't stomp on or drive over this kind of box, but I find that it is plenty tough enough for packing, light in weight, cleans up very well, firmly grips the pans (I hate loose pans), yet pans are easy to replace or change.
Avoid the plastic field kits, for example the miniaturized 12 color watercolor field box set from Winsor & Newton. This costs around $80 and, oops!, will warp or melt if left in the car during a hot summer day. (And I mean left in the glove compartment, not on the dashboard or seat.)
Several of my British readers have lustily recommended the super heavy handmade metal palettes by Craig Young. These are used exclusively and recommended by Charles Reid, and while they are pricey (up to US$420 for a 20 pan box), they appear to be sturdily made, based on traditional field box designs, enameled in exterior designer colors (racing green, dark blue, maroon and black), and can be built to accommodate either left or right handed painters. You can contact Craig by email or by post at 23 Friars Garden, Ludlow, Shropshire UK SY8 1RX; at this writing he was running a several month backlog of orders. Winsor & Newton markets a similarly heavy enamel paint box, but I found that I didn't want or need the extra weight ... and the mechanism for holding the pans in place (a detached metal strip used as a wedge) is ineffectual and inconvenient.
Paint Selection & Palette Design. Which brings us to paint selection. I either buy the Winsor & Newton whole pans from Ken Bromley, Jackson's Art Supplies (both in London) or Pearl Paint art supplies (in the USA), which seem to be the only retailers online who carry the complete range. (Jerry's Artarama carries only the more popular colors.) Or I make the pans myself by squeezing tube paints into empty plastic whole pans available from most art retailers, or as the W&N whole pans get depleted. This is more cost effective, and lets me use any brands of paints I want.
I have tried painting in the field with small (6 oz.) paint tubes and an Eldajon palette, which I also used to carry in my field bag, but I found the paints were messier to clean up and, if left on the palette between painting trips, dried to a hard plug that was no different from the dry pans. The tube paints are prompt to get started, though, which is a plus in unfavorable (hot, cold, crowded, precarious, uncomfortable) painting locations, make it easier to get a dense, rich color mixture, and are less wearing on brushes.
Field painting is an encounter with the unexpected, so I start with a broad palette design, shown in the palette scheme below.
my field palette scheme
It took me many months of experimentation to settle on a field kit for painting outdoors and to take with me on vacation. Equipment choices are highly personal, and every painter has his or her unique outdoor working style and equipment requirements. I'll describe my choices to suggest the issues you may want to consider in making a kit of your own.
In the main compartment I carry three or four 9"x12" watercolor blocks (the picture shows Arches rough, Winsor & Newton cold pressed, Winsor & Newton hot pressed), a paint mixing card, a color xerox of the artist's color wheel and artist's value wheel, a large viewfinder cut from a 9"x12" piece of foamcore board, and a simple white canvas brush roll, which absorbs any excess water in the brushes and bundles them firmly without pinching the tuft hairs (as with the bamboo roll carriers).
I indulge in a large (21 pan) selection of colors because this allows me a wider range of paint handling attributes (texture, transparency, staining). I also discovered that paint mixing with a more limited number of colors tends to consume water and time in situations where both are precious resources.
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(bottom row) (1) benzimida yellow, (2) nickel dioxine yellow, (3) pyrrole orange, (4) cadmium red deep (5) quinacridone magenta, (6) quinacridone violet, (7) manganese violet;
(middle row) (14) sap green, (13) phthalocyanine green BS, (12) cobalt turquoise, (11) cerulean blue, (10) phthalocyanine blue GS, (9) cobalt blue, (8) ultramarine blue;
(top row) (15) chinese white, (16) raw umber, (17) gold ochre, (18) burnt sienna, (19) venetian red, (20) burnt umber, (21) ivory black.
As explained below, I carry several paints in reserve to swap into the palette for specific painting problems.
Because it's unreliable to pick good mixing complements by color alone, I've matched each "cool" paint to two or more neutralizing or near neutralizing warm paints, which usually include an earth color and a saturated warm hue, and I commit to memory these color mixing relationships.
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Accessories. The paint box packs inside a 7"x10" white metal butcher's tray, with some NY MOMA unpainted cedar #2 pencils, a palette knife, and a synthetic Pack Towl (I also carry a few regular paper towels, folded to fit), a 3"x6" flat tupperware container with lid, and an Altoids metal mint tin. Lately I have been carrying a few colored watercolor pencils, charcoal pencils and pressed pastels for use in the field as well.
The Altoids tin is exactly large enough to hold 14 additional whole pan paints in two layers. I swap these in or out of the habitual palette for special painting subjects. These include cadmium lemon, cadmium yellow deep, cadmium scarlet, quinacridone carmine, cobalt violet deep, indanthrone blue, manganese blue, cobalt teal blue, phthalocyanine green YS, chromium oxide green, green gold, raw sienna, quinacridone gold and a second near black paint (sepia or neutral tint). Again, this is the "just in case" part of the kit; in practice I use these paints rarely.
The Tupperware container carries a pencil sharpener, a couple of small sponges, a clear plastic water spray bottle, a stainless steel penknife (for cutting papers from the blocks), a large eraser, a razor blade (for lifting and editing), and a bar of vegetable brush soap (usually not used in the field, but later in my room).
The butcher's tray can be used for mixing paints, but more often I use it as a clean surface where I can place tools and wet brushes in the field. It also helps to protect the paint kit and mint box during travel by holding them in place.
The main compartment can also hold a sketchbook to make thumbnail sketches, though I prefer to sketch directly on the block, working out the basic approach through outlining the main color areas and to define lines that separate complex detail or high contrast edges.
I don't work from an easel, and I don't understand why other watercolor painters do. I have a sturdy, convenient Stanrite aluminum tripod that works perfectly with watercolor blocks or papers prestretched or clipped to boards, and always can be set to level on rough ground; but it's just more stuff to pack on a plane trip or haul into the field, so I only use it when painting near my car.
I usually work without a chair at remote locations (unless painting at a cafe or hotel veranda). Whenever possible I work standing, and set the block and all other equipment on a flat rock or low wall in front of me. If I must work seated, I sit on a blanket or jacket on the ground with the block resting on my knees or between my legs. If painting near my car, I use a small folding canvas beach chair, the low to the ground kind, that fits nicely in the trunk, or I sit in the passenger seat with the door open, feet on the ground, the painting kit on the floor next to me.
Water containers are the only missing element. In a pinch, I can fit into the kit a small plastic water bottle, about the same shape and size as a hip flask, which is just enough water for one painting. (This was a freebee from Cheap Joe's.) During travel I don't usually lack for containers: a nearby restaurant will usually lend me a coffee mug or small bowl, the convenience store sells paper bowls and plastic cups, and the hotel room is stocked with water glasses.
Painting near my car, I carry a clear plastic jar or glass dish in the trunk for use as water containers. In remote locatons, the easiest solution I've found is to carry in a six pack of those small (0.5 liter) water bottles, the kind that are made of the crackly thin crystal plastic (the colored plastic ones don't let you see the color of the water). To make a water container, I pour out some of the water and cut off the top 1/3 of the bottle with my knife. When finished, the emptied bottles crush down to a light, packable clump I can carry out in the bag.
Occasionally there is a stream or outdoor faucet nearby that makes the water unnecessary to carry ... but I don't ever use ocean water, as it is always dirty, mildy corrosive, and can damage the metal ferrule and tuft glue in the brushes, or the metal hinges and joints of the metal watercolor box.
My remedy for disturbing light is a wide brimmed felt fedora or straw hat (the kind that gardeners wear), or a nearby tree or structure. No umbrellas, please: extra clutter, extra weight, extra inconvenience, and too easily airborne in the wind.
As these combinations provide both perfect grays and green, violet or warm near neutrals, and provide various contrasts in mixed texture and behavior wet in wet, I can quickly choose among a very wide range of near neutral mixtures by thinking in terms of these warm/cool pairings.
Last revised 11.12.2007 • © 2007 Bruce MacEvoy
my field paint box (freshly cleaned)