Blog

In a previous blog, Travel Tips on the Go, I described my suitcase of art materials and how it served me well as a pastel painter on adventures overseas. This update includes the incorporation of an adapted easel and other useful choices of materials to equip an artful backpack for air travel.

Recently, in preparation for a much anticipated trip to Greece, I was determined to be able to paint every day along the way, and so endeavoured to pack accordingly. The trip itinerary, London to Skiathos, Crete, and Athens was booked through several airline companies each with different baggage allowances.  I had to pack within  the limits of  the smallest of these, which was  8 kg hand luggage with a 15 kg checked suitcase.

I decided it would suit me best to have all the art materials in my hand luggage. It would be safer than putting things in the hold, for having my pastels as lost luggage was unacceptable, and having it with me at all times would certainly serve any opportunity to paint that would present itself along the way.

On many past trips overseas I regretted not having an easel with me, so this year, despite the daunting weight restrictions, I determined to fashion an easel that would be sufficiently small and lightweight that I could add it to my kit of pastels, boards and papers.  Rather than purchasing yet another easel, for already I have far too many, I decided to try figure things out with a forgotten tripod I serendipitously found in a corner of the garage.

An  important addition to the tripod legs was an aluminum Easel Butler I have. (See this clever tool at https://www.easelbutler.com/) I attached the easel butler to the tripod and  experimented with ways of balancing a base and vertical support boards against the ball head of the tripod. 

 This shows the way I secured the tripod, easel and gator boards with some small bungees.

I  did a few test runs in the outdoors near home.

Oops! This shows that things didn't always go according to plan. 

Since the legs of this tripod don't lock into a fixed relationship when extended, I had to tie the easel butler to the tripod to maintain the correct width between the 2 front legs.

These, then, are the key items I would carry in my artful backpack:

• a collapsible Manfrotto tripod

• an aluminium Easel Butler that hooks onto the legs of the easel (https://www.easelbutler.com/)

• several pieces of gator board for tray and backboard, cut to sizes enabling paintings of 9x12 or less

• 6 small bungee cords and several metal clips to strengthen the set-up

• 2 packages UART 9x12 sanded paper in cardboard envelopes ( largest size that would fit into my backpack)

• 9x12 pad tracing paper or Krystal Seal bags for protecting finished art work

• one or two lightweight boxes of pastels. (I prepared my homemade foamcore box  with carefully selected palette and a "Nomad" set from Blue Earth (https://www.blueearthpastels.com/)

• Artist tape, sketchbook, mixed media sketchbook, small watercolor travel box, and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol.

These materials fitted nicely in my  light-weight, partitioned backpack.

Other preparations before the trip included underpainting several sheets of  9x12 UART in watercolour washes of different shades – warm, and cool. I also  spent time checking, selecting and cleaning pastel favorites and "specials"  for my box. I often use Mars violet, umber, orange and ochre for underpainting and preliminary drawing. To the tonal hues I like for painting the Californian landscape I added vibrant blues and greens anticipating the brilliance of the Mediterranean Sea.

Outcomes:

Our first stop was on the island of Skiathos. On the first morning a small terrier, Milly, showed me round the grounds of  our wondrous hilltop

villa, Lephteris House https://www.karavotsakisma.com/

I gifted this  small piece to Gail Statakis, the gracious owner/developer of Karavotsakisma Villas, who I am delighted to share is also a pastelist. http://www.gailstathakis.com/

For the rest of the two weeks things went well. The backpack was  easy to stow on board the plane and carry about. (Full disclosure: my husband Peter was with me and insisted on carrying my gear a lot of the time, for which I am very grateful!)

I was delighted that the fold out set-up was sufficiently secure and facilitated  comfortable eye-level painting while standing.

A 12x9 piece painted of the Kastro, Skiathos, Greece, June 2023.

Having the variety of toned under-painted papers to choose from in the different locations saved time and added to the fun of mixing palette choices in these very different circumstances.

Koukounaries Beach, Skiathos, Pastel 9x12

Many golden opportunities arose in the places we visited. On two occasions I had  spectacular view sites from rooftop access of our rental accommodations.

This was the rooftop access of our rental in Matala, Crete.

Athens by day and night with a clear view of the Parthenon.

I am so grateful to have been blessed once more by immersion  into the emerald waters  and the joy and colors of the light of the Greek Islands in the fine company of family!

Conclusions:

Back home now, I  enjoy reviewing the collection of work done on the trip. The treasures of this thrilling adventure are stored in my memory, photos, and this series of completed pastel paintings of 12x9 or 9x12 from the artful backpack.

These  I'm sure will be a springboard for  further paintings of the Greek Islands  which I hope to share with you soon.

You are welcome to comment, or suggest improvements I might consider for next time!