Saturday, March 6, 2010

Packing for a painting trip on an airplane


Above is another painting I made for the Charleston show, at the Ella Walton Richardson Gallery. This was painted from a beautiful spot on Kiawah island. I studioized it some though.

I was asked a few questions about packing for travel by airplane and I thought that I would write briefly about that. The last major airplane trip I did was to Venice. I took a Pochade (pronounced pochade) box. Mine is an Easy L with which I am happy, but there are other good boxes out there also.

Into my suitcase I packed;
  • The Easy L
  • A light tripod in a cloth bag with shoulder strap
  • A backpack, empty
  • I cut a roll of canvas into 20" lengths with my chopsaw. I could then cut 16 by 20s or 16 by 24's out of that. That went into the suitcase. Also about ten 8"by 10" primed Masonite panels.
  • two sets of 16 by 20 stretchers and 1 set of 16 by 24 stretchers, also a staplegun and staples and canvas pliers and screwdriver.
  • A couple of cigar boxes full of paint.I downloaded on Gamblins web site the specs on paint showing that it was not flammable or dangerous I included this in the box with the paints.
  • Brushes and medium cans.
  • No solvents.
  • Two softcover and one hardcover book on Edward Seago.
I also carried my small camera and seven days changes of clothes. I wore a light jacket. I did sink laundry with dish detergent and hung my clothes up to dry in the bathroom. One time I went to a laundromat.

When I landed in Venice I found a good art supply store where I bought alkyd medium and more Titanium White. I found a hardware store where I could buy mineral spirits.

I stretched three canvases, two 16 by 20's and one 126 by 24. I used lots of Liquin so I had fast drying times. When I had painted on the canvas I took it off the stretchers and put a new canvas on them. Then I rolled all of the canvasses around the tube on which I had brought them. On the last couple of days I painted on the panels. I separated them with little U shaped metal staple thingies I found at the hardware store, taped around them and wrapped the whole show in paper.Because I painted those panels the last days the canvasses I did were dry and could be rolled. With my Liquin I was getting 24 to 36 hour drying times.

I have a plastic tube made for skis that telescopes. I can use it to take a Gloucester easel on an airplane. There is room in there for a roll of linen also. It looks like a rocket launcher. Security thought it was a gun case. When I opened it for them they didn't know what it was.

I wil probably be unable to post tomorrow as I will be on the road.

I met a great young artist tonight. He is Marc Delessio he opened a show at the Ann Long gallery tonight. He is very 19th century classical in approach, and studied and now teaches at the Florence Academy, that is headed by Charles Cecil, who was a student of R. H. Ives Gammell, although he was there just before me.Here is a link to Ann Long gallery

13 comments:

Marcelo said...

Gorgeous painting... Probalby one of my favorites. But I feel that somehow the colors on the photography weren´t truthful to the actual painting. Can´t you get us another reproduction?

barbara b. land of boz said...

Stapleton, I really like your paintings you have posted the last few days.

I am looking forward to the workshop in Rolling Fork, and It sounds like you have it down to fine detail on packing your "stuff" for plane travel.

I have taken to my bed the last few days. A really Bad Bug going around. I'm just happy it struck this weekend and not next. My husband is taking good care of me!
barbara

Unknown said...

Super practical advice here - I will have to remember this when I have the chance to do a long painting trip.

Have you ever tried painting in gouache when traveling? I have never used it, but a lot of oil painters seem to be happy using it when traveling since it is opaque and water soluble. Although, maybe they are using for more of a sketch while you are creating finished works for sale...

mariandioguardi.com said...

Marcelo, I agree. This is just a lovely piece with all the lushness and atmosphere of those southern Atlantic states. I'm not sure what Marcelo means about the colors. I hope that they are true here. Love those colors.

Jeremy, I use gouache but not for painting landscapes or travel. I use it to work out preliminary small color studies when I am working on a still life design. (It's like a tempera/poster paint). The colors are wonderful. For me it's a medium in and of itself, drying quickly and constantly needing water. I don't think it's for sketching but maybe someone who paints with water color can handle it more quickly than me.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Stape for the great info on traveling. I hadn't thought of using loose canvas. I had some little cardboard "corners" I thought of using to separate wet panels, but I'll check the hardware store for something smaller.
This was really helpful.

And, it goese without saying, beautiful painting. Love it. Good luck with the show.

Marcelo said...

I meant that it seems that there´s some glow on the canvas, specially on the right side. Just a little bit, which is making some colors look a little more greyish than I believe they really are.

Love the painting.

mariandioguardi.com said...

Ahhh..thank you. I enlarged the image and I see what you are referring to. I believe that it is intentional and effective but Stapleton will clarify this for us for sure when he gets back. Thanks for pointing that out for me.

willek said...

Boy, it is really hard to go through a day without a Stape fix.

Darren said...

While Marc did study (and teach) at Charles Cecil Studios, he currently teaches at the Florence Academy of Art.

The Florence Academy of Art's director, Daniel Graves, partnered with Cecil to open Studio Cecil-Graves in the 80's. After they split, in the early 90's, they each founded their own schools (Charles Cecil Studios and the Florence Academy of Art).

Paul Coventry-Brown said...

I love the subdued palette in this painting and it creates a wonderful atmosphere, great work :-)

jade said...

I'm surprised you only just met Marc Delessio! He is the person who directed me to your blog. small world.

dkvision said...

Wow! I saw that painting of Kiawa island when I was in charleston a couple of years ago. I loved it. I recognized it immediately when I came across it on your blog. I was born and raised in charleston and my grandmother painted charleston landscapes so I was lucky enough to watch her my entire life. I just came across your blog and I am really enjoying it! Now I really want to go home and paint some landscapes!
Kim Baxley
Www.baxleydesigns.com

dkvision said...

I should also tell you just so you understand how much of an impact that painting made on me that I look at 1000s of paintings every week as I am sick and spend weeks in bed unable to do anything but look at art on the internet and read blogs and watch videos about art. Always itching to get back to creating art. Anyway. An amazing painting. Just beautiful.