A number of artists have been asking me about my paint setup, so here are some pics and descriptions. Tarryl Gabel (fellow artist and co-conspirator!) and I have been working on the design for it based on systems we’ve used over the past several years. We wanted a lighter and more compact solution to our plein air painting needs. We’re each working with a prototype and will be making final adjustments soon.

The shelf and tray units are being designed in AutoCad and 3D printer software by engineer Robby Grossman, as a labor of love for his lucky mom. (That’s me!) Robby will probably release the printer code for the tray and shelf units for free once the final changes have been made. Anybody who’s interested can then have the codes, and order them made through any print shop that does 3D printing. It shouldn’t be too much longer, and it should be quite inexpensive for you to get it. I’ll do another post when it’s available.

Images below are all clickable if you’d like a larger view. Here are a couple of photos of the components in use:

To use this setup, you’ll need some kind of a standard tripod easel. There are lots of them out there. It works on the ones that use a standard tripod with attachment for a panel/canvas, or those that have clips to hold a panel/canvas. My tripod easel looks like this:

Tarryl has been using it with a standard camera tripod, with an attachment at the top to hold her panels, and that’s worked fine too.

The tray unit weighs only five ounces. That’s a huge improvement over the “light” 28 oz tray I’ve been using for many years!

The tray is fairly small, and has a lip along the left side, so that you can clip on a brush holder, garbage bag, turp container, rag, etc.

The small tray slides right onto the tripod legs. It only needs to be large enough to support a palette; anything more is just extra weight to haul! I’ve also used this tray for painting in acrylic, gouache and watercolor. I just clip whatever palette I’m using to the tray. It could also be secured with velcro.

The paint shelf unit weighs only 6 oz., and sits on top of the tray. It’s secured to the tripod by two small squares of velcro that I’ve put on the back of the shelf (image below) and the legs of the tripod. There are holes in the top of the shelf unit to add extra support by hanging it from the panel support with wire, but I have found the velcro to be so secure that I haven’t had to use the wire at all.

To hold my brushes, I used to flatten one of the cardboard cylinders that comes inside a toilet paper roll, tape it up at the bottom, and clip it onto the lip of the tray. That worked great, cost nothing, and weighed nothing! Then Tarry’s husband made me this cool, super light brush holder out of an energy drink can!

I clip on the paper palette from both sides. (Tarryl secures a lightweight wood palette with velcro instead.) The shelf unit is supported by the tray and the velcro.

Above is a side view of it, all set to go.

This is a front view of it all set up. I use a double palette cup for my turp and medium, and usually do not bring a brush washer out on location. When I’m done painting, the turp is pretty much gone! I just wipe out whatever’s left with a paper towel and I’m ready to leave!

The tray and shelf units are designed to fit together. I cover the shelf unit with foil, and place the foil side against the tray, nestled against the raised lip. That goes into a zip lock bag, and is completely secure inside my backpack, with a total weight of 11oz! When I get home, I put the bag into the freezer.

This setup has solved a lot of problems for me because I often have to hike a good distance over rough terrain to get to where I want to paint. There is so much we have to bring with us — lunch, drinking water, bug spray, panels and panel carrier…. I need to keep my painting gear as light as possible. Having the shelf unit for my paints enables me to work with a smaller, lighter mixing palette, since the space isn’t taken up by my paints. I don’t need to lug all those tubes. I don’t have to take the time to open, squeeze out, and close up my paints, or mix my basic darks and tints (which also takes up a lot of mixing area on a palette, and a lot of time as well).

Perhaps this will give some of you ideas for more solutions to our continual search for better plein air travel options! I’ll post when the code is released.

I think I’ve pretty much covered it, but if you have any questions, feel free to post them.

Painting/Pochade Box | 8 Comments »

(Click image if you’d like to enlarge it)
5×7″, Oils on oil primed linen panel
$130.00 plus $12 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

I just can’t seem to get enough of waterfalls, and spring is usually the best time to capture them. The heavy spring rains, combined with snow melt from the mountains, usually causes them to run heavily this time of year. This year has been relatively dry, so they are not as full as they usually are in April. I’m hoping for some of those “April Showers” to come along soon! Still, there was plenty there for my painting purposes. I loved the greens and yellows in the shallow, clear water, so I chose a composition to showcase those elements. I used a limited palette of Cadmium Yellow Medium, Pyrrole Red, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White. Once I get a better photo of just the painting, I’ll add it to this post. That could be awhile though. You may have noticed that I haven’t posted any paintings for quite some time. We’ve had deaths and illnesses in the family over the past few months. What little time I’ve had for my art I’ve spent painting rather than photographing images and posting. I have several more paintings to post and will try to get them up over the next week. Hopefully, with the good weather upon us now, I’ll be able to venture out with my brushes more and take in the natural beauty that inspires me. Thank you all for checking out my work here.

8x10 and smaller, Available, Catskill Mountains, Greene County, Hudson River Valley, Lakes and Streams, Landscape, Oil paintings, Painting/Pochade Box, Palenville and Catskill, Plein Air--painted on location, Spring, Waterfalls | 1 Comment »

7×5″, Oils on archival linen panel
$125.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

Every so often, especially in winter, I get tired of working in my studio. I have a little 5×7″ Guerrilla Painter pochade box that I keep stocked with an assortment of artist grade water mixable oil paints for these occasions. I can use them anywhere in the house, in a cafe, or for painting in my enclosed car, without having to use solvents. They perform quite well, and I love that they give me these opportunities to break away from the studio when I need to do so.

Tonight was one of those times. I set up a little still life on the kitchen counter, broke out my little “stealth painting box,” and had a wonderful evening! I adore this little box. It holds a couple of wet paintings and my paints. There is a little black shoulder bag available that just fits the box and has a couple of pockets for a few additional supplies. I can grab it and go at a moment’s notice, and be able to paint anywhere!

Here’s an image of my setup below. You can click on it to get a larger, clearer view:

My palette for this painting was:
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Permanent Rose
Ultramarine Blue
Transparent Red Oxide
Titanium White

8x10 and smaller, Available, Flowers, Gardens and Flowering Trees, Painting/Pochade Box, Product Reviews, Still Life | 3 Comments »

5×7″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
$125.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

I went back to the waterfalls in Platte Clove; I can’t seem to stay away from there for long! This time I was test driving my brand new baby — the 5×7″ Guerrilla Painter pochade box. It’s so small and light, and I can take this everywhere for stealth painting on the go! I got it with the palette extension to give me a little extra space to hold my palette cup, brushes, and a clipped on rag. The palette is still small, but then again, so is the painting. For 5×7 size it worked just fine. It holds two wet panels instead of the four that their 6×8″ box holds, but the 6×8 is deeper and heavier. This one fits right into the pocket of my pack stool!

I’ve been so busy this week. My fellow Daily Painters Laurie Pace and Kimberly Conrad are visiting from out of town with their husbands. We’re all having a grand time. My Daily Painter friend Gretchen Kelly also came to join us yesterday. We toured some of the “Hudson River Art Trail”, managing to visit Olana, Locust Grove, North South Lake, and Kaaterskill Falls in a single day!

Tonight I’m cooking dinner for everybody — fresh corn from the local market, chicken breasts with pesto sauce, carrots, a huge salad, and stewed fruit with whipped cream for dessert. Mmmmmmm…..

8x10 and smaller, Available, Catskill Mountains, Greene County, Hudson River School, Landscape, Painting/Pochade Box, Plein Air--painted on location, Waterfalls | 1 Comment »

$115.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

8x10 and smaller, Available, Demos/Work in Progress, Flowers, Gardens and Flowering Trees, Painting/Pochade Box, Still Life | 3 Comments »

You can click this image to see a larger view of the painting.

Summer Greens at Boscobel: Hudson River Quadricentennial Series No. 26
6×8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

Today began my five day painting trip. I started out this morning at Boscobel Restoration in Garrison, New York, on the Hudson River. This was my first visit to Boscobel this year since the summer greens took over the landscape. The day has been picture perfect, and I had a wonderful time doing this painting!

I don’t have my image editing software on my laptop yet, so during this trip, I’ll have to just post the images as they come out of the camera, without any adjustments. I tried to take this picture to take in part of the scene as well as the painting, so you’d get an idea of what I was painting. When I get back to my desktop system next week, I’ll add adjusted images of all the paintings to their posts.

8x10 and smaller, Cold Spring and Garrison, Hudson River Paintings, Hudson River Quadricentennial Series, Hudson River Valley, Landscape, Painting/Pochade Box, Plein Air--painted on location, Sold | 3 Comments »

8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sized, “Pearl” Canson board
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

Many Hudson River School painters, including Thomas Cole and Jasper Cropsey, painted from this spot high above North South Lake. I can see why they derived so much inspiration from this location.

Although the view faces west and offers spectacular sunsets, my husband and I opted to make the one mile climb up there in the early morning to beat the heat. I sat on a large rock slab in the shade provided by the huge Sunset Rock, and used my small, foamcore pochade box, which was a real godsend on this trip!

8x10 and smaller, Catskill Mountains, Golden OPEN Acrylic Paintings, Greene County, Hudson River School, Hudson River Valley, Landscape, Painting/Pochade Box, Plein Air--painted on location, Sold | 1 Comment »

10×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on “Pearl” Canson board
This scene is available as a studio/commission original painting in any size/price range. Please email Jamie at JamieWG@aol.com if interested.

What is the tallest waterfall in New York State? Niagara? Nope, guess again. It’s Kaaterskill Falls!

My first opportunity to paint on our trip, following in the footsteps of the old Hudson River School painters, was after climbing a half mile up to the base of Kaaterskill Falls. You wouldn’t think one would have to climb so far uphill to get to the bottom of a waterfall, but it is indeed far up the mountain. I don’t think I would have made it without my new ultralight painting box in my backpack. I didn’t have to carry a thing, and my pack was nearly weightless. Here’s a photo of the new painting box and my palette for this painting. I’ll be posting more photos of how the box was constructed in the week to come. You can see that I’ve added an extension to it, which can hold my brushes and palette cup.

In the early morning light, most of the fall was in shadow, so I chose a scene that focused on the waterfall/cascade right at the base, where the light was strongest. By the time I was finishing up this painting, a little light was just beginning to hit other parts of the falls. I stayed to do a second painting that included the top tier of the falls as well. I’ll be posting that one tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Thomas Cole and many of the Hudson River School painters painted from this very spot. There are beautiful cascades all the way up the trail to the base, inviting a series of paintings. In fact, the beautiful Bastian Falls is right at the bottom before the trail even starts to ascend, but it’s definitely worth it to make the climb to the top to experience Kaaterskill. I’m sure I’ll be coming back here many times in the years to come to take advantage of other locations along the way.

We intentionally went the day after a heavy rain, figuring that there would be a significant increase in the amount of water coming over the falls and the drama it created. We were right! Most of the paintings and photos I’ve seen of this waterfall display a far narrower stream of water. We chose the right time to go, even if the way up was a little wet and slippery!

Edit: I just checked the image above on a different monitor and it looks a little too light, so depending on your monitor, this image below may be more accurate:

8x10 and smaller, Available, Catskill Mountains, Golden OPEN Acrylic Paintings, Greene County, Hudson River School, Hudson River Valley, Landscape, Painting/Pochade Box, Personal Collection, Plein Air--painted on location, Waterfalls | No Comments »

8×6″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on linen
$115.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

This is from today’s open studio. This is the first time I’ve done a figure on this clear-sealed linen, and I just love the way the colors work with it and the texture.

I used the new, lightweight painting/pochade box that I made for this one. It’s working out great! Here it is in the life drawing studio all set up and ready to go….

8x10 and smaller, Available, Figures, Painting/Pochade Box, Portraits and Figures | No Comments »

Here’s my setup while test driving the new box!

Click on any images below for a larger view. The post below this one gives instructions for making the box shown in these images.

I’ve had this idea brewing in my head for almost a year, and finally made my car/laptop painting box this weekend! I wanted something extremely lightweight. This is made out of a single sheet of black foamcore! I used foamcore to make my pastel boxes, and was amazed by how sturdy it turned out to be when constructed properly. I used the same techniques to create this painting box. Best of all is that it weighs only one pound!

The white palette is a foam meat tray. I found them in an 11.25 x 9.25″ size and thought that would be ideal for palette inserts for my box, and also to use as palettes for oils and acrylics in open studio. They are perfect for gouache and casein too! I found a place online that had them and ordered a case of 250. A stack of four can fit in this lap box.

Here’s what the case looks like when it’s closed up for traveling. It measures 17x10x2″. The front closures are velcro strips.

The box is sealed with a couple of coats of Golden GAC100, so it can be wiped clean and should be fairly water resistant in case of water and paint spills.

Inside the box, there’s ample room for brushes, paints, several foam palettes, paper towels, a small solvent container like the mini one made by Guerrilla Painter, or a collapsible water container like this Aqua Tote for acrylics.

I found the little containers (above) in the camping department at a sporting goods store. They have an air-tight seal, so I think they should work out great for holding and storing all types of paints. With these two, I can hold more than enough colors for an outing plus a way to store leftovers when I’m done. However, the box is deep enough to hold tubes of paint if I prefer to bring the tubes.

I decided to make the back hinges out of heavy duty velcro. Because this box is for multi-media use, and I also plan to use it for painting in my car, I wanted it to be as versatile as possible. Velcro hinges make the lid completely removable if the car is tight for space and I want to separate my drawing/painting support from the box itself, or if I need to lie it flat for watercolor work.

This side arm prevents the box lid/painting support from opening too far. I decided to use velcro for this feature as well, in order to have greater adjustment potential. The velcro “hook” strips along the side (above) and the back (below) secure the arm made of the “loop” velcro.

The Aqua Tote water holder, below, is one of my favoite items of painting gear for water media. Not only does it pack up into a small space in the box, but it also serves as my brush holder, and is very lightweight.

These are available online from Dick Blick, Jerrys Artarama, and ASWexpress.com.

Another helpful item I found recently was a package of small misters. These are helpful for keeping acrylic paints wet on the palette, as well as for moistening paper for watercolor and acrylic wet techniques. They are only four inches long and 1/2″ wide. I found them at my local Michael’s Arts and Crafts shop.

Now that I’ve finished taking photos and typing all this out, I’m going to find something to paint and give my new box a test drive!

Update after field testing:
I’d suggest using duct tape for the back hinge instead of the velcro strips. I’ve found that I have yet to make use of the capability to remove the box lid, and the velcro strips keep pulling up.
Instead of office clips to affix my painting support, I am finding blu-tac much more convenient. It enables me to paint right up to the edges of my work.
The office clips can be used on the left side of the lid (if right handed) to clip some paper towels or a rag to the lid. That way, the left side of the lower tray can be reserved for paint tubes/containers, mediums, and water/turp.

Demos/Work in Progress, Painting/Pochade Box | 5 Comments »

I’ve uploaded these images large enough to be able to read the text. Just click on the images to see the enlarged versions. I hope many of you find this helpful to build your own lightweight boxes for those times when lugging a heavy setup is impractical.

For some unknown reason, I’m having to click twice on these pages to get large, clear images. If you click and the image is unclear, try clicking the image a second time.

My permission is granted to download and print out the three images in this post for your own information and reference only.

Update after field testing:
I’d suggest using duct tape for the back hinge instead of the velcro strips. I’ve found that I have yet to make use of the capability to remove the box lid, and the velcro strips keep pulling up.
Instead of office clips to affix my painting support, I am finding blu-tac much more convenient. It enables me to paint right up to the edges of my work.
The office clips can be used on the left side of the lid (if right handed) to clip some paper towels or a rag to the lid. That way, the left side of the lower tray can be reserved for paint tubes/containers, mediums, and water/turp.

Demos/Work in Progress, Painting/Pochade Box | 7 Comments »

$150.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

6 x 8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard, unframed

I finally was able to snatch some plein air time today. Hooray! It was one of those spectacular fall days, with the warmth and sunshine you didn’t think you’d find again until spring. I dropped my daughter at gymnastics and headed for a nearby park to take in some rays and test drive my new pochade box.

I hear those giggles among those who know me. “Another pochade box?”, they’re asking. I already have one for oils (which is a little bigger and supports larger panels) and one that I made for gouache. I plan to use this new one for “stealth painting”. heeheehee… It’s so small, and I’ve filled it with watersoluble oils so that I can just use whatever water I have on hand for painting in cafes, my car, or even the kitchen, with no worry about fumes or toxic substances, and no need to carry oil or turp.

Here’s an image of the painting still in the box. You can see there’s a hinged lip at the top of the part that holds the panel securely in place, so that you can slide the panel in and out. The box will hold one 6×8″ panel horizontally, and keeps it separated from the paints so that I can travel with the wet, completed painting.

The palette itself is actually wood, but I covered it with white contact paper for easier cleanup, and because I prefer to mix colors on a white surface. I find it hard to judge the colors and values of my dark, transparent mixes on a dark wood palette. The white contact paper worked out great. It wipes clean easily with a palette knife and rag, and if it gets tattered down the road, I can just peel it off and recover. As shown below, the palette slides to the left, giving easy access to the box’s storage compartments.

Here’s another view of how I packed up my box. I had to cut the handles off some of the brushes so that they’d fit. Underneath that rag is a thumb hole for supporting the box while standing.

For those looking for a small box like this, I give this one pretty high marks. It is sold by Utrecht, and made by Jullian. It is very reasonably priced, and comes with an adjustable leather shoulder strap too.

8x10 and smaller, Available, Demos/Work in Progress, Landscape, Painting/Pochade Box | 6 Comments »