Last weekend we hiked in 7 miles to camp at Thunder Lake. This area of RMNP is very picturesque and our hike took us from dense forest to windswept tundra with rivers, streams, and lakes along the way.
With packs already full of gear, food and water, I had to scale down my painting kit. So, I left my tripod, pochade box and panel support behind and assembled this mini kit from stuff I had laying around.
For the box, I used an inexpensive plastic bin with clasp locks for the lid. It is just large enough to fit the four 37ml tubes of paint, a small cup for OMS, a pair of gloves, two small spring clips, plastic bag for hauling out trash, a couple of 5"x7" panels, a pencil, and small Moleskine pad for sketching. I packed my brushes and paper towels separately.
As for paints, I limited my palette to Quick Dry White, Cad Red Light, Ultramarine Blue, Hansa Yellow Medium...all from Gamblin. I also incorporated Gamblin's Galkyd medium to speed drying.
Once I found a spot to paint I simply removed the contents from the box, secured the panel to the box with the spring clips and squirted out some paint. The clips worked surprisingly well to hold the panel and mixing the paint in the bottom of the box kept everything tidy. When I was done, I simply wiped box clean with paper towels and put all the supplies back in.
As a side note, I sprung for the "Mighty Mite Jr. Brush Washer" small turps jar made by Guerrilla Painter. It's a 1.25" high, plastic wide mouth jar with a welded metal insert for brush cleaning. It doesn't look like much for 15 bucks but it was exactly what I needed for my mini kit and it worked great with no leaks...even at 11,000 feet above sea level.
Clickbacks:
Here's the link to the video showing my original Pochade box: http://scottruthven.blogspot.com/2011/11/painting-en-plein-air-forces-quick.html
Here's the link to another post on building your own Pochade box: http://scottruthven.blogspot.com/2011/11/pochade-box-envy.html
Hope you are having a great summer!
