Only 2 weeks until France!

 The last several weeks I've been busy working on the National Watercolor Society 102nd International Juried Exhibit. It started off slow, but then as the deadline approached it was a round the clock job. We ended up with 604 artist entries from around the world, and sent those entries off to the jurors this morning. In addition to that, I've been under-studying with the NWS website director in preparation for my transfer into that job later this year. It hasn't left me with much time to tend to my garden, but I did manage to spread a little mulch last weekend. 

Dueling Sunfish, 12x16 watercolor by Annie Strack

Only 2 more weeks until I go to France! Yippee! I'll be gone for about a month, teaching painting in Brittany with the Sennelier company and my old friend Yves-Marie, who is the Artistic Director of Sennelier. We've been planning this for several years and I'm thrilled to be finally able to go! 

Mt St Michel, Brittany, France

This weekend I'm painting at the Old Stone Village Plein air event in Salem, New Jersey, and for the Bourbon and Bluegrass event at Winterthur, Delaware. Next week I am teaching the online workshop "Painting Koi in Watercolor" for the Art Guild of Louisiana. Then I just have enough time to pack before I leave for France for the summer. 

Packing light for plein air travel

We still have plenty of time to get ready for our next trip pleinair painting trip, which is next June to Brittany with Mathieu of Provence ArtExperience and Yves-Marie of Sennelier (this trip is sold out, but you can check my website for other future trips that may still be available). But it’s never too early to start planning! I’m writing a series of posts about preparing and packing for our trip, and I’m starting off with this article about what to pack in your main suitcase.

Annie painting en plein air

Depending on which airline you use, you might be limited in the size, weight, and number of suitcases you can bring. Usually, you are allowed at least one medium size (25”) suitcase up to 50 pounds, and one carry on bag. More expensive flights might allow you more than that, but I have found that the medium suitcase plus a carry on is always enough for everything I need, including my art supplies. I use half of my suitcase for art equipment and supplies, and the other half for clothes and personal items. It still leaves me plenty of room to pack souvenirs later for the return trip. I always pack my portable luggage scale so I can make sure I don’t exceed the weight limit when I pack for my return flight home. Check with your airline (including the code-share flights!) to see which baggage limits will apply to you and your flights.

Annie Strack, Plein Air Painting in Provence

Clothing:

It helps to limit your wardrobe to separates that can be mixed and matched. Personally, I limit mine to just black and white items and I add color with a few scarves. Our lodgings always have a washing machine so there’s no need to pack a different outfit for each day of the trip. We always have plenty of shopping opportunities and you’ll want to save room for clothing and other items purchased while touring the village market stalls and charming boutiques. Pack comfortable shoes, but don’t worry – we won’t be hiking up mountains or running any marathons. Your normal, comfortable, everyday footwear will do just fine. However, stay away from anything with leather soles. The surfaces of the cobblestones of European streets are worn down as smooth as glass, making them slick as snot! Leather-soled shoes or sandals will send you flying (I learned this the hard way, and still have the scars to prove it). Don't bring too much! 

Annie Strack, Yves-Marie Salanson, and traveling artists at the Sennlier factory in St Brieuc, France

Even the most experienced travelers tend to over-pack. Almost everyone on all of my trips has ended up leaving things behind in Europe because they can't fit it all in their suitcase when it's time to leave. Weight is super important -- only bring lightweight items including shoes and clothing, and leave yourself lots of room to bring back new things from your trip. 

Toiletries:

In addition to your usual travel toiletries, pack a small bar of soap and a washcloth. Guest houses often do not supply them. For your toiletries (such as toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, moisturizer, etc.) bring small sample-sized products, or items that are almost empty. Plan on using them up and throwing them away before you come home. This allows you to have even more space in your suitcase to pack souvenirs on your return trip.

Electricity: adapters versus converters:

An adapter is something that goes on the end of a plug so it will fit in an outlet. A foreign voltage converter does that as well, but it also converts the current down from 220 to 110 volts. Your phone, laptop, tablet, and other rechargeable battery powered devices already have a type of voltage converter built into their charging cords – that’s the big boxy-looking thing on the cord or on the plug. In those cases, just adding an adapter will work just fine. However, other appliances without a built-in converter will overheat and quickly burn up if plugged in with just an adapter. I mean that literally – they will start a fire. In particular, hair dryers, curling irons, flat irons, etc. These need to use a converter. Converters cost quite a bit more than adapters, but may be necessary for some electrical devices you pack. Make sure you have what you need. If in doubt, err on the safe side and use a converter.

Accessories:

It rains. Bring an OLD umbrella; one that you can use while there but then leave it behind if you need to free up space in your suitcase for your return flight. It’s also sunny. Bring a hat or a plein air umbrella for shade when painting or sketching outside. If your plein air umbrella can double as your rain umbrella; all the better! There is always a beach or pool nearby, so pack a bathing suit if you want to go swimming.

Annie teaching plein air painting in Spain

Our tour guides always provide folding lawn chairs, so you don’t need to worry about having to pack folding stools in your suitcases. Although you will be expected to be able to carry your own gear, our daily excursions will never be too strenuous. I suggest packing a small backpack or tote bag for carrying your plein air gear to the daily painting locations. I use the same tote bag for my air travel carry-on as I do for my daily excursions.

Bring a telescoping hiking stick, or better yet -- a mono-pod. I've been using mono-pods for some time, now. They work like a telescoping hiking stick, but they have a camera mount on the top. They double as your hiking stick and also help to hold your camera steady. You'll find them at stores that sell tri-pods and other camera equipment. Hiking sticks are great, but if you use a camera then you should invest in a mono-pod instead of a hiking stick. Although my trips aren't strenuous, you will be able to navigate the terrain much better using a stick.  

Annie Strack, jurying the Dinard Plein Air festival in Bretagne, France

Make copies of your vaccination card, passport, tickets, and travel itinerary. I always keep an extra copy of everything locked in my suitcase, and I leave another extra copy at home with my hubby, just in case. Also take a photo of each of these documents and store it on your cell phone and in your cloud. 

Anyone have any other suggestions? I’d love to hear them, post them in the comments!

Want to hear our expert tips on packing art supplies? Click here to learn more!

Viviva colorsheets

 Several weeks ago I received a new product to test and review, the Viviva color sheets and sketch book. Although I'm still recovering from cancer treatments and haven't returned to a full working schedule, I still didn't find the time to test them until today. I'm so glad I did! I'm having a fabulous time, playing with the pigments and filling up sketchbook pages! 

These new Viviva color sheets are perfect for traveling. They offer two palettes in book form, Original and Spring. The Spring includes a selection of metallic/iridescent colors. Each palette "book" contains 16 colors and includes a mixing area, yet it weighs almost nothing -- only a little more than an ounce -- which makes it an ideal choice for air travelers or just to keep in a pocket for painting anytime, anywhere. 

I was amazed at how saturated the pigments are on these sheets, there is easily enough paint to fill several sketchbooks with paintings! The company claims that one book of 16 colors is equal to a set of 16 half pans, and from my experience that would appear to be correct. I can't imagine some of these pigment being so intense, and I suspect there may be dyes involved as well as pigments. Whatever the case, the paint is formulated to quickly reconstitute with water which makes it easy to use. These have become a new favorite of mine, and will go with me everywhere. 

Paired with a small sketchbook (the 4x6 Viviva sketchbook is perfect!) and a water brush, it's everything I need for a day of colorful creativity. I highly recommend it!

The 4x6 Viviva sketchbook contains medium weight cold pressed paper and is perfect for water based media. The Viviva color sheet books fit nicely inside, making it a compact and very practical painting kit. 

UPDATE!! 

I'm going to be offering a special promotion of these in a few weeks, so be sure to check back!

Hahnemuehle Watercolor Blocks

Awesome news! Hahnemuhle is sponsoring my next workshop in Charleston by providing a 9x12 block of their Cezanne line of watercolor paper to each student in my workshop! I love the Hahnemuhle Cezanne papers, and this is a wonderful treat for my students to each get their own block of paper! 

Cezanne watercolor blocks by Hahnemuhle 

Winter Semester Classes at the Community Art Center in Wallingford start next week. There are still a couple of spaces left in my watercolor class, so hurry and register if you want in! This class fills fast with returning students so there is very limited space for a few new artists to join in each semester.

Annie's students at the CAC

And in other news, there is just ONE SPACE left in my plein air trip to France with Sennelier! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for artists to go to Brittany on the invitation of the Sennelier company. There will be a wait list, and there is always a chance that a few artists will be selected from the wait list to go on this trip.

Brittany, France!

Plein Air Painting in Brittany with Sennelier! June 10 - 19, 2020!  Postponed due to Covid-19! 

New Dates! Due to overwhelming response, we have scheduled TWO tours! Both groups are SOLD OUT, however we can add your name to our waiting list in case a spot opens up! 

June 8 - 17, 2022 

and

June 22 - July 1, 2022

Registration is now open for my plein air painting workshop in Brittany, France, co-hosted by Sennelier! The first group sold out quickly and we are now taking reservations for the second group (ALL GROUPS ARE NOW SOLD-OUT)! We will paint the castles and chateaus, forests and parks, and the seaside villages and beaches of the northeast coast of Brittany.

We also have an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime invitation to visit the Sennelier factories in Saint Brieuc, and the Raphael and Leonard brush factories, where we will be treated to hands-on demonstrations and given art supplies to use.

And, as the honored guests of Sennelier, we will be the featured artists at the annual Dinard Plein Air Festival! This annual plein air painting event encompasses the seaside resort of Dinard with it's picturesque squares and markets and breathtaking beaches.

UPDATE! I just found out that there will also be a Concours d'Elegance in Dinard during the plein air festival. Painting these beautiful automobiles will be a real treat for the artists!

When I was painting in Provence in few years ago, I ran into my old friend Yves-Marie Salanson, director of Sennelier. It was serendipitous, and Yves-Marie invited me to bring a group of artists to Brittany so they could visit his companies. 

Yves-Marie of Sennelier with Annie Strack in Provence

Yves-Marie and I became friends many years ago in the early days of Twitter when I was working as a Contributing Editor and Columnist for Professional Artist Magazine, and I later helped him when he was developing his new formulas for the Sennelier watercolors. I tested and reviewed paint samples for him, and I introduced other artists to him to also work on the project with us. 

It's been over a dozen years and we've been friends ever since, although we had never met in person until we ran into each other, quite by accident, while I was painting in Roussillon with my students in 2018. We made plans then and there, that I would soon bring a small group of artists to Brittany where his company is headquartered so he could show us around as his guests. 

Well, we finally got it all organized, with help from Mathieu of Provence Art Experience -- Mathieu is the world's best when it comes to organizing trips for artists, and this is shaping up to be our greatest trip. 

This trip is already half full (only ONE space remains in the second group!) so please don't wait to reserve your spot! (SOLD OUT, join our wait list). Because we are limited to a small number of guests on this trip, we are only able to accommodate artists in this group. We are not able to offer discounts to non-artists wishing to join us. 

These groups are limited to just seven artists -- that's less than half the number of people you will find in any other tour group, which means that every person on our trip is pampered with individual attention. These small intimate groups allow us to be flexible and spontaneous with our itineraries so that each person gets more than just a tour - they get the freedom to create their own personalized adventure. 

My tours are special, as I include lavish extravagances that all the other workshop artists simply can’t do because they just don’t have the resources or connections that I have. So, I only do one European tour per year, as it takes a great deal of time to plan and create these extraordinary travel experiences.

(Private concert by the Gypsy Kings on our veranda in Provence)

Lots of artists are now teaching workshops overseas, but my trips are so much more impressive than the standard, “copy and paste” itineraries that everyone else is offering. Other artists are all selling the same old cookie-cutter tours over and over again, and taking their groups to over-crowded tourist locations where hordes of artists are already staked out elbow to elbow as they all paint the exact same scene.

(Attending a wedding in the village square)

The artists who travel with me enjoy upgraded rooms in luxurious accommodations, gourmet meals prepared by award winning personal chefs, unique special events that are created exclusively for my groups, and no hidden fees or expenses (everything is included except for airfare!). Click HERE for tips on packing artist equipment and supplies for air travel.

My unique position as an Artist Ambassador for the world's most recognized brands of artist materials and my long history of working with art supply manufacturers and retailers means that my workshops are always sponsored by companies that produce fine artist materials and generously provide supplies to my participants. 

This trip is superior to all others, and provide one of a kind VIP experiences that other artists can’t even begin to offer. I take my groups to see extraordinary sights and paint at breathtaking locations that other artists don’t even know about.

Our house in Brittany!

We've secured an entire castle just a short walk from the beach for our accommodations. More photos of our Brittany house are posted here, check it out! There are five days in between, when the the first group of artists leaves on June 17, and the second group of artists arrive on June 22. So, for a small daily rate, artists in group one can add a few days on to the end of their trip, and artists in group two can add a few days onto the start of their trip. Ask Mathieu for the details. 

We have unrivaled entertainment on our tours as well, which can range from celebrity encounters, private concerts, personal tours of famous places, exclusive invitations to exciting events, and so much more. 

Travel restrictions are being loosened, be sure to keep up with the latest travel information on the official government website for travel to France. 

Many artists return year after year to take my workshops, and as a result, space is extremely limited to new attendees. Reserve your place now while there is still space available. 

To read my tips on packing light for this trip (or any plein air painting trip overseas!) click here.  

Sign up at Provence Art Experience Tours, and be sure to follow this event on Facebook to keep up with the latest updates!

painting in Provence

I've just returned from teaching a plein air workshop in Provence, France, and I'm still jet-lagged. And, somewhat disappointed that no one brought me fresh croissants when I woke up this morning in Pennsylvania.

Mas de la Boheme in Arles, Provence, France.

Our trip was absolutely amazing. Our tour operator, Mathieu of Provence Art Experience took care of every every need and desire. We walked in the footsteps of the great French Impressionist painters, and painted the scenes and views that they made famous.

Ochre hills of Rousillon

Every day was a new adventure of painting, shopping, eating, and more.

painting the mountain behind Cezanne's studio, using the Cezanne watercolor paper from Hahnemuhle.

There was so much to see, and so much to do! I spent 10 days in Provence with my students, and could have spent 10 years. 

the Roman amphitheater in Arles at night

We stayed at Mas de la Boheme, a beautiful 18th century guesthouse nestled in the countryside just outside of Arles. Turns out, the owner and his son were members of the famous band, Gipsy Kings...

And, to top it all off, I ran into Yves-marie from Sennelier while my group and I were painting in the streets of Rousillon. We weren't even going to paint in Rousillon that day. We went there in the morning to tour the ochre sites and shop in the local market, but we loved it so much we stayed to paint in the afternoon. Yves-marie lives on the other side of the country, and had just flown in for the day to visit the exhibit of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. So it was pure serendipity that he just happened to walk by on the same street that I was painting, and recognized me. Although we have known each other for at least a decade, we had never actually met in person. Many years ago, I helped Yves-marie test and formulate the new line of watercolors for Sennelier, and we've been friends ever since.

Yves-marie Salanson of Sennelier and Annie Strack in Provence

So, I will be going back to France in 2020 to teach another plein air painting workshop with Provence Art Experience, and we will be collaborating with Sennelier to paint in the Brittany region so we can visit the factory and include Sennelier in our project.

How to make a quick and easy shelf for a watercolor easel!

Many watercolor artists paint flat -- using a table to paint upon rather than an easel. I prefer to use an easel, and I like a watercolor easel because it allows me to tip the painting flat when I'm laying in a wash, and tip it vertically for other techniques. The drawback to these easels is that there isn't anywhere to place a palette and other supplies-- so a table is still needed.

I came up with a new idea for an attachable easel shelf, that's simple and easy to make. And really inexpensive!

This is a wire closet shelf. It is 12 inches deep, and I cut it to 16 inches wide. I choose that size because it is the same size as a 12x16 block of watercolor paper, so it will be easy to pack it with my blocks when I'm traveling. 

It is simply hung on the bracket screws on the easel's legs. The bracket screws are made to hold the canvas shelf (aka stabilizer shelf). My easel has two pairs of these brackets, and I hung my new shelf on the lower pair. My canvas shelf is right above it, on the other pair. 

This photo shows how the shelf rests on the easel. I added a larger washer behind each of the screws to help hold it more securely, but it really didn't need it. The two parallel horizontal bars of the shelf are what is holding it flat against the legs, and keeping the surface of the shelf level. The vertical connectors between the horizontal bars are spaced 12 inches apart -- the perfect width for bracing against the screws.

Want to learn more? Watch this short video for the full details on how to make and attach this shelf! Not sure how to attach it with only one pair of bracket screws? Watch the video to see how it can be secured with a bungee, instead. 

And here's another wire shelf. I found a small stack of these at the Habitat re-store, already cut to 16 inches wide and ready to hang. Best of all, they were priced at a buck a piece. Absolutely perfect.

Plein Air Essentials for Watercolor Painters!

I paint en plein air often and teach classes and workshops, and my new students often ask me what gear they need to come join me on these excursions. I first started painting outdoors back in the early eighties, when I worked as a State Game Warden in the Florida Everglades. Back then, I kept a small box with my painting supplies in the back of my truck so I could sketch and paint the landscape around me.

Later, when I lived in California I organized some artist friends to join me on weekends to paint the breathtaking scenery of the valleys and coastlines. Back then, we called it painting outside or paint outs -- "plein air" was not used as a noun until recent years.

The supplies I carry with me haven't changed much over the decades. Paint, brushes, and water are the essentials. I prefer pan watercolors and I keep a penknife, pencil, eraser, sandpaper, salt, and travel brushes with the folding palette. The travel brushes have self-storing handles that protect the brush when not in use. I like to use a watercolor easel such as this one, but when I was younger I would just sit on the ground and hold my painting on my lap as I worked.

I show a selection of water containers in this photo, and they all have one thing in common -- they collapse. The dog bowl holds enough water to paint a larger painting, or the smaller camping cup can can be tucked in a bag with a sketchbook to be handy for impromptu sessions. The red rectangle in this photo is a value finder. Looking through it helps artists to see values, and both in their subject and in their painting.

The right paper is a major component of painting. I like a small sketchbook such as this spiral bound one from Hahnemuehle for sketching on the go and small studies. For full size plein air paintings, I use 140 paper mounted in block form, such as this 12x16 block of Cezanne paper from Hahnemuehle.

Annie Strack teaching plein air painting in Spain

More Plein Air!

A few more paintings from last the Brandywine Plein Air festival last week!

Frolic's Ford, 8x10 oil 

Pasture at Big Bend, 8x10 oil 

 During the exhibit at Winterthur, I demonstrated plein air painting in the main tent to entertain visitors. Here I am with my half-finished watercolor demo on Saturday. The painting sold before the paint was dry!

On Sunday I demonstrated watercolor painting again, this time using a photo from my recent plein air workshop in Calella de Palafrugell as my reference. Both my demo paintings are on the "Cezanne" 140 lb rough watercolor paper from Hahnemuehle. I was demonstrating alongside my co-organizer of  Plein Air Brandywine, Yvonne Mucci; and I invited my house guest Gerilyn Gaskil to join us. I gave each of them a block of the paper to use, and both of them loved it every bit as much as I do.