The Travelling Artist

Do you take your art materials on holidays with you?

My husband and I travel for about 5 months of the year with our caravan. We will be heading off in about 4 weeks to Far North Queensland, with Cape Tribulation being our furthest destination. We tend to stay between 3-7 nights at each place and this will be the third year we have traveled north in the Winter.

Each morning we head out exploring and taking photos and then relax in the afternoon. The scenery is magic and we have discovered some amazing places. We try to visit different spots each year, although there are some places we are drawn back to. Eventually we will probably stay longer at our favourite locations.

Okay … so onto art!

The first year we started travelling I bought a set of graphite pencils and didn’t take them out of the pack!

Last year I bought a small watercolour set, even though I’m not a watercolourist, and managed to mess about nearly every day for about an hour. I found this fun, did some plein air paintings and learnt quite a lot about watercolours.

This year I am going to get serious and take my acrylics with me. I’m working on a series of turtle paintings to support the Reef HQ Turtle Hospital in Townsville, Qld, and have decided to work on some of these during our trip.

So far this is what I have decided to take:

• Table easel

• Tablet

• Watercolour paper

• Backing board

• Acrylic paints and mediums

• Brushes

• Pencils

• Stay wet palette

• Water container

• Paper towel

• Apron

• (Anything else I’ve missed)

I’ve decided to buy a plastic bin, just big enough to fit my supplies, and this can be stored in the back of our car. I hope to get at least 2hrs painting time each afternoon while Bob has his ‘Nanna Nap’.

Hopefully when we return in September I’ll have quite a few turtle paintings completed :)

Are you a travelling Artist? I'd love to hear your tips!

Happy painting :)

Carole