Plein Air Painting List

by ChrisD | Jul 7, 2015 | Blog Posts, Chris's Blog

My list is from someone who wishes to enjoy the day and not have it be WORK. My goal is to use this time to refine my drawing skills by applying the 19c.French Academy’s dot to dot – in our art program in the art classes and in the painting classes we call ” Touch-Point-Drawing concepts of site drawing. As our goal in all of our art classes we are to refine our seeing and drawing of shapes both positive and negative shapes. To take the classroom art school exercises and to use them in the ousted classroom To look for figure ground relationships, To capture the Essence of my senses are experiencing. To look beyond any preconceived ideas of what to paint and allow a soaking in to experience the moment. To refine and map out a my storyline based on that discovery. Just as you are taught in our art program through our art courses So, here is my list of Art Tools:

Chris diDomizio working in Oil Paint and Dylan Scott Pierce working in Watercolor

• Camp Time Roll-a-Chair sold at amazon (1st to remember to enjoy the day)
• Coulter Plein Air Easel from Art Box and Panel ( I use the Standard size but my wife uses the Compact size and it looks very appealing to me, I just ordered the Compact for myself – hiking and for flights. I like the box only not the kit. $135-$145. I lean toward the Compact if you are buying One.
• Geurrilla offers a metal panel ( canvas Holder) Guerrilla Painter Guerrilla No.17 Flex Easel $75.00 ( –amazon gorilla link) which is great for drawing, watercolor, and oil painting. I would strongly consider ordering the box from Coulter and the canvas holder from Guerrilla and use your own easel.
• I have different Plein Air Boxes they are all great, I like Coulter because the Standard size has twice the palette space of the other Plein Air boxes and it allows me to mix the Triadic Circle!
• I love Arches Huile Oil Primed Paper 9×12 favorite size)  or 12×16 and tape it to a piece of 12″x16″x⅛” hardboard – the hard boards after cut : I find that sanding the edges and a water based poly urethane to cover the back side and edges keeps the hardboard flakes from falling on my wet paintings while in the wet canvas carrier. try doing 2-4 paintings on a single 12×16 panel, this way you spend 40 minutes a painting  
• Paper Towel Holder by Open Box M $20.00
• Raymar Art –  Wet Painting Carrier  I like 9×12 but if you paint larger the 12×16 is largest I would go. I love using the 12×16 and dividing it into 4 different studies on the same page. Great for travels abroad when having wet carrier space is limited when you can have 4 paintings on a single page..
• Rosemary Brush Company “Ivory Filbert” sizes 2,3,4,5. is really the only brushes I need outside.
• Rosemary Eclipse Long filbert size 1,2
• Bristle fan brush size 3, Signet bristle brushes 2,4,. will not work on Arches Huile paper but is great for other surfaces.
• I will try the Rosemary brush co Ivory long Filbert shortly and let you know.
• Brush washer tank for plein air which seal closed to prevent leakage, I like the size close to 20 ounces.” Newton Air-Tight Deluxe Brush Washer”.
• Mechanical pencil and eraser but, I draw with a brush
• Gamasol cleaner, when I fly I will mail –U.P.S. Gamasol to the hotel in advance ( even to bellagio, Italy next may 2016)
• Bestbrella  umbrella for keeping light off both  my canvas  and palette, this is a must for me, I like the air vents which allows the air to pass through. I purchased cheap quick Clips from Home Depot to attach the backpack to the center of the easel for wind.
• Kelty back pack size is based on the Coulter box I use, my wife’s Compact uses Kelty 44, the Standard size Coulter Easel uses Kelty 50.
• I tone my palette under my glass with a sheet of canvas pad. 4 parts Ivory black and 1 part raw umber and thin it out with Gamasol and wipe off till smooth and making a medium dark value. I then cut glass to go over the toned canvas for a neutral grey back ground, the reddish wood color can make it difficult for me to see the greenish and reddish colors accurately. When home I paint in the morning before work I will keep a sheet of glass with my colors premixed and stored in the freezer so I am ourt the door and painting the lake in painting in 3 minutes. I use diamond tip brads from our frame shop to hold the glass in place.
• Bubble wrap  under the glass and toned canvas paper.
• I tone the wood palette a neutral grey by using linseed oil with my grey paint mix ( without white) to seal the wood. This would allow me to not have to use a glass palette anymore. By using linseed oil 3-5 coats ( wipe off extra oil between coats) will saturate the wood with oil which will keep the wood from absorbing the oil in the paint while the paint is sitting mixed on the wood palette, keeping my palette wet longer. I dislike cleaning the paint off the wood and having oil paint all over me, toxic, so the tone is a back up if the glass breaks, it has not broken yet.
• When I cannot freeze my paint while traveling, I scrape my paint daily. Since I am limited to how many Raymar Wet Painting Carriers I can pack, I use  Walnut Oil Alkyd from M. Graham to help dry the painting dry over night! My thought is by the end of the trip I could stack some of the dry painting sheets and reserve my Wet canvas carrier for just that, wet canvases.
• Really Works Hand Wipes, but, i put them in a baby wipe rectangular box. the round tube the art wipes from different art companies top keeps coming off when in the back pack.
• Small Items: drinking water with a top which does not spill!, paper towels!!!!!, snacks, small  plastic garbage bags!!!! , Hat, bug spray, suntan lotion Warning: if it does not fit in the back pack you might rethink bringing it. Our first trip we / I carried / a cooler on a ½ plus mile hike.  Never again.
• I store my paints in the Art Bin 429048 , fits in my back pack, protects from punctures and travels on flights well.
• small 2 oz. metal “painting medium”  cup
• iPhone because who is kidding whom when a bird lands in your scene – it is gone in seconds, or a gondolier shows up…( ok I knew he would show up) where are the rules which say you cannot capture and add? This is about my time, my day, to enjoy and step into something I have been called to do and enjoy doing it.
  

  Chris diDomizio Plein Air Study “Grand Teton’s Jackson Hole”

   

   

  

  Chris diDomizio Plein Air Study ” Autumn on the Davidson River, N.C.

  If we do our job teaching the art program through all the drawing and painting classes in our art program this step into plein air painting will gradually become a desire fulfilled.  Happy painting as the painting classes head outside..