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Author: Scott_Burkett, Contributing Editor
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| When packing your mediums, don't bother packing big jugs of turpenoid, or half-gallon cans of Linseed oil. They'll just weigh you down. Find some small glass jars, like the ones shown above. If you carry something like Copal medium, find the small jars, like the one shown to the top/right of the image above.
These little jars are excellent for mixing and storing mediums. More importantly, they are excellent travel companions! Fill one with turpentine, turpenoid, mineral spirits, or whatever your favorite solvent is. Fill another with some copal painting medium, linseed oil, stand oil, or poppyseed oil. You can also see a small plastic funnel in the photo above. If you mix your own mediums, you can use the small funnel to easily (and safely) pour the medium into the little glass jars. NOTE: Avoid jars with cork tops, as solvents will eat through it most likely. Also, be sure that the jars you use can seal air tight, or you'll have a mess to clean up in your backpack. Some of the flip-top ones can leak after a while. The small round jars, with the metal screw-on lids work the best. :) I found a good batch of these little jars at The Container Store. At the time of this writing, they didn't have them on their web site for sale (containerstore.com), but they had them in my local store. You can also find them at just about any art/craft store. Generally, you can pick them up for less than $1 each. :) Of course, I bring my favorite little metal clip-on palette cups. :) |
 | A very important item that you should NEVER leave behind is a small supply of fresh water.
Here are two different sizes of canteens. These can usually be fastened to your pack pretty easily. Also shown is my small lumbar pack, which we discussed earlier. I usually wear around my waist. This particular model came with two squirt bottles that rest on either side of the pack in small pouches. It doesn’t matter "how" you bring you water – the important thing is just bringing it. :) |
 | Another indispensable item is a "multi-tool", such as the ones made by Gerber or Leatherman. These compact tools usually have a knife, file, screwdrivers, pliers, and cutters, as well as other tools on the higher-end models.
These are handy for recrimping leaky paint tubes, opening paint tubes that are sealed tight from dried oil, tightening a screw on the leg of your french easel, etc. Also seen in this photo is a good cut of rope – always comes in handy! Especially if you need to tie down your easel to keep it from blowing over, or if you need to create a make-shift shelter out of your poncho. |
 | I must confess, I use more paper towels than any other plein aire artist on the planet. No kidding. I don’t know why, but I do. I always bring TWO full rolls – lol. Luckily for me, they can be compacted (just sit on them, seriously). Most folks will only need one roll, though.
You can also use the little cardboard centers to carry your dirty brushes home. Just stick them in and tape up the ends with some masking tape. Also shown is a plastic bag. Inside this plastic bag are ten others just like it. Just tie one on to the leg of your easel for a convenient trash can. Remember those little glass jars we talked about earlier? If you are afraid of them breaking in your pack, just wrap them up in these little plastic bags. |
 | Another critical item is some sort of wet-weather gear, such as a plastic poncho. The one shown to the left was one that I stole from Uncle Sam before I left the Army. Ah, your tax dollars hard at work keeping me dry! You can find these at any good military surplus store.
If the weather gets REALLY bad, you can use a small piece of rope to tie the poncho to tree branches to form an impromptu shelter. You can also throw this (carefully) over your easel if it starts to rain to protect your work! |
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