Thanks, Maestro Ian, for this video. I used my french easel for years until my grandson removed most of the bolts on it before I went out painting, and then, of course, the whole easel fell into a giant heap on location. Stuff happens in the field, for sure. 😅😅
I thoroughly enjoy your videos and always learn something useful. This one has lots of great suggestions. Plein air painting is what got me back into painting, although I never stopped sketching.
Can't thank you enough for this video, Ian. I remember when this was originally aired and I was so taken with the Soltek easel! It was, just as you said, "unavailable", and very expensive, but I was determined to save for it. That fell by the wayside (surprise, surprise) and with this reminder, I went to look it up again. STILL "unavailable", still very expensive, but I've signed up to be alerted when it's back in stock. I haven't painted en plen air since a few years after college, but I really want to. This has served as a reminder, so thank you. Always FULL of great information!
Generally Pete, I don't like canvas pads. I use primed canvas cut to size and sandwich them between to boards when travelling. However if you do use canvas pads I find they all need a couple of coats of gesso (must be acrylic primed canvas) to fill in all the texture. I hate the texture of those pads which is why I don't use them.
Hello from Cyprus 🇨🇾 Thank you for all of your experience and advice. You are truly a creative minimalist with focus. Great to have your time and so grateful for the magic. ❤
I always was amazed on how painters can get over the huge universe on a little canvas. Now I¨m trying to build a viewfinder to reduce the noise. Thanks for the tip!!
Hi Douglas, as you know there are lots of people giving plein air workshops. Two thoughts. Pull in a group of people local to you and work with them weekly or monthly. Find them say by word of mouth almost. The other is to choose a location everyone wants to go to. I taught workshops in Provence for 25 years for that reason. Hope that helps.
Thanks so much for these tips. What I've also done is taken a picture mat that sometimes comes with frames and divide it into two pieces such that each piece forms an "L-shape." The two parts can be used to frame out a composition to the desired length and width. The final frame dimensions can be held together with two of those plastic paper clips.
You are a very generous, kind man. You are sharing a wealth of information in this video and all your others. Thank you so much. Just one question, when you travel with the loose canvases on top of one another, do they ever adhere to each other?
Hi Dennis, when I travel and will be plein air painting I take a couple of sizes of canvas. Say 8 x 10 and 10 x 12. I cut pieces of canvas 10 x 12 and 12 x 14 prime them and then have two boards say 16 x 20. When I paint I tape (with beige masking tape around all four edges so canvas is very secure on the board. I use Ray Mar boxes when I go out and slide the wet canvas in the box after painting. When I get back to say the hotel room I peel the canvas off and lay it on the floor (or some place safe) . When I am going home I put wax paper between each canvas and sandwich them tight and wrap it with masking tape so it won't shift or check. If the painting was just done the day before there might be some paint transferring to the wax paper. But generally after two days I find they are usually dry enough to do that. Hope that helps.
Terry, if you have wet oil paint and bright sunshine you usually get glare. It is just a question of taking a step to the left or right, just see it at a different angle, so there is no glare. You don't need to move much. Also you want to have the canvas in shadow. Not in direct sunlight. And of course ideally the palette too. But the canvas for sure. Hope that helps. All the best.
Such great tips. I like the credit card method of spreading gesso on canvas board. Do you work strictly in oils? I am quite squeamish about using oils because the clean up will be a nightmare and because of the possibility of spontaneous combustion when using turpentine and linseed oil. I will check out your website. If you have any tips to help me work cleanly, I would definitely appreciate it. Thank you.
No need to use linseed oil. I use gamblin solvent free gel as my medium. Not as much smell as linseed either. Odourless mineral spirits for brush clean up. Once in a while they get a good soak in Murphy’s oil soap, which is water based.
HI Sheryl, I use Gamsol which is pretty non toxic. Not completely but low toxicity. I have put used paper towels (used with mineral spirits) in waste baskets for decades and never had any problem. I do put the waste basket outside after painting just because all that mineral spirit is evaporating and seems smarter to have that go on outside rather than in the studio. If you can get Gamsol and use a disposable latex glove on the hand that holds the paper towel and therefore the one touching the mineral spirits you'll probably be OK. I suppose people have different reactions to the solvents. But hopefully that should work.
Bonjour Quels pinceaux me conseillez vous chez Rosemary pour faire de l impressionnisme ? Quelle marque utilisez vous personnellement ? Je ne trouve pas mon bonheur en France. Merci .
Bonjour Philippe, je dois responder en Angliais. I like the Rosemary Ivory. They are synthetic but I like them. My favorite brushes of all time were French made - Manet. But they went out of business a few years ago. If you can get Rosemary they're fine. Or Escoda hogshair filberts. They are Spanish I think. You should be able to get them in France, Hope that helps.
