Today was our last day in residence in our summer studio in Northern Victoria.
Today I completed the packing and set up of the back of our troop carrier, making it a working artist's studio.
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The photo shows the l shape table set up. the larger table is a light weight one, tied securely to the cargo barrier. Underneath it are lightweight, stacking, plastic draws filled with paints. On the table anchored in place is another draw filled with office supplies. My pastel pencils and my brush stand. To the right of the chair is the extra chest three-way fridge. I also have pastels, papers and canvas stored in there. 

Three lighting, 240 or 12 volt plus long life battery powered lighting means i will  be able to work in my own private studion anytime, while on tour. This will be 'my area ` my space. :-). 

The items for sale will now go in the front part of the caravan where I used to tr to paint and I always had trouble, as it was hard to paint in a shared space. Artists will understand what I mean lol :-).

The lower pictures show the set up of this space.
 
 
My incidental exercise this weekend will be to have fun, setting up the interior space behind the cargo barrier, in the back of our ‘troopy’, car, and convert this into a touring artist’s studio.

I have begun to set up by attaching a lightweight aluminium table to the back of the cargo barrier, then attaching electrical supplies, a florescent 240-volt light and an LED light fitting that runs from a long life battery that charges from the 12-volt plug in our car as we drive.  This gives me a well-lit working table space.  

I have illustrated this post below, with some of the fridge magnets I have made, from the images of on location, painted, landscapes.  These can be purchased from me ‘direct from artist’, over the next couple of weeks, if you are in the South Gippsland region, we will be touring around, the Tarra Valley  through to Lakes Entrance region, watch my status updates for our Art/Print/Crafts, viewing locations or order these from my Women,Words,Works, blog and website.

 
 
 
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Advance Notice.

$1,000 . value of Oil Paint to be given away FREE to my blog readers during

February 2010.

Not just any oil paint but,

 quality Italian Maimeri Classico 60ml tubes.

These paints are the artist’s daily bread and butter. Anyone – professional or amateur – who picks up a tube of Classico oil paints will find in it just what they need. They contain no waxes or thickeners, and pigment concentration is very high. Bright, lively colours with overall harmony in the palette, these paints from Italy are made with non-toxic, non-polluting pigments that improve light-fastness.

They are versatile paints, offering exceptional value for money, but you could own a set plus postage FREE.  Watch this blog and http://mummifiedtimesfive.net for further details and be the first to enter this FREE competition.
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We moved into a large onsite van with seven attached rooms, and began renovating it, last summer.  This is not our main home, our main home is our Eco-tourer caravan and out troop carrier, Toyota, land cruiser work mate, car, I refer to as ‘troopy’.

I needed this summer home to have room to store my lifetime supply of art materials, left over from the art supply shop we had connected to our Buninyong Gallery.

Each year we return in the springtime and I am able to top up my travelling supplies from the store and enjoy the freedom of spreading myself for a while.

I am packing my 2010 art supplies into the car, now, and we went looking at fridges and freezers that we could use in the car as additional food storage, but would not take up too much of my art supply space.  We found a chest fridge that runs on 12 volt, from the car or 240 volt, it’s big enough for the fresh vegetables but it will not take up too much of the studio space I need, inside the car and the flat top will be handy, It can double as a seat. Always handy to have things serve two roles, when you pack for a long tour.

I always compare prices on line these days and look for the best shopping deals as it pays to compare shopping prices.

I will never have to shop again for watercolour papers. I have more left over from the art supply shop, we closed, than I could use in three lifetimes at the rate I am going now. I am beginning to use the textured acid free watercolor papers for my pastel sketches and I will pack some acrylic paints this year and try these out on the papers too.

I tend to vary what medium I take away with me on tour, each year. Some years it is oils, others watercolors, and this year, based on my enormous stack of artist, quality watercolor paper, I think I will do ‘works on paper'.

I have bought some of those office paper, storage systems at Big W; they hold A4 size paper and will be great for storing 9” x 12” paintings while they dry. They were $20. each. I bought 5 of them. I hope to have the opportunity to paint prolifically this trip and I don’t want, the not knowing where to store part wet art works, to slow down my enthusiasm.
Now, when I do travel with oil paint that stays wet for weeks, I will have an adequate storage system for my on site paintings, as we travel.

Artists are always wondering how to transport wet paintings and the narrow draws, made for scrap booking and office papers in lightweight plastic storage containers are ideal for this job,.

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine. 
 
 
I have been sorting out my acrylic paints for the 2010 painting tour.  I plan to use acrylic paint within the caravan in the evenings and I want a small compact kit.  Most of my acrylic paints are in either 1 litre large bottles, or 500 ml jars or a few old and hard to read the description or colour, tubes.  They need a good sort through.

I began at the supermarket and I bought tight fitting lidded, plastic containers, 100 ml empty bottles, sold as travel shampoo and conditioner storage. The small plastic pots are sold a as mall condiment containers and are idea for small amounts of paint also.

I decanted 100 mls of paint from the larger bottles into my smaller bottles until I had one well-packed set of many colour paints in one container.
 
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I made a stay-wet pallet for painting the landscape, when I travel, by putting the grids from two smaller containers in the bottom of a shallow square container.  I cut wettex sponges to fit over this grid, and then I covered these sponges with wet strength paper towels with part of the paper towel going under the grid to the base of the container.  When in use I will have a shallow layer of water under the grid, I will have the wettex sponges damp, the paper towel will remain damp and the paint goes on top of the wet strength paper towel. The air tight lid will then hold the moisture in and any unused acrylic paint left over from a day’s painting session should stay wet until the next painting occasion.
 
 
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250 ml jars of several brands of acrylic paint fit perfectly in the plastic sewing totes sold in many sewing craft stores.  These crates are also flat topped with a recessed handle, so they stack well, on top of the other to save space in the studio. Being plastic, they are waterproof and any spills are easy to clean up.