Do you have any painting equipment, or other things that you especially like?

[Elaine Hurst]

I have a painting board, of sorts, that I made from left-over cardboard, which has been really nice.  I can put oil paintings, or pastel paintings, taped to the inside, and they are not damaged while hauling it around.  It has a space, made by old wooden trim, to keep the paintings from touching the other side.  It holds together with strong velcro, and It is all varnished, so oil paint can easily be removed.  It works wonderfully for the times that you might want to put several small gessoed papers, or some such thing, on the board, and work on different subjects, different light, whatever.  I taped a piece of webbing on the outside to carry it with.  I don't have any photos of the outside right now, but I can take some.  Here are two photos showing how I use it for doing different studies.

[Norah Blount]

Moleskine watercolour sketch books, schminke pans, set of travel brushes, small back -pack and most important of all a good pair of waterproof walking boots

[Elaine Hurst]

Do you have many bugs in Ireland? When it is warm here, depending upon the weather and where you are paintings, we can have some bugs. Suntan lotion if there isn't much shade somewhere, and lots, and lots of water to drink! We painted out today, and we are having unusually hot weather for April, so everyone was really feeling the strange weather.

Norah Blount said:

Moleskine watercolour sketch books, schminke pans, set of travel brushes, small back -pack and most important of all a good pair of waterproof walking boots

[Tony Robinson]

I'm a bit of a Heath Robinson (no relation) when it comes to adapting bits and pieces to make up my painting kit. My painting box is just the regular kind you can sometimes buy a box of oils in but I've adapted it to hold panels using 2 little bars which are cut-offs from a gallery hanging system and the top clamp is 2 thin bungee cords which can slide up and down to allow me a little extra height (up to about 20 inches if I need it). The box has been through various incarnations but it is always attached to one of my camera tripods with a quick release plate. I have one workhorse tripod and a light Manfrotto one for hiking around. The heavier one works great even with a large drawing board attached (with another QR plate) and is stable even for large charcoal life drawings.
Camera tripods are sturdier and better-made than the artist's tripod easel.

I paint out often with Michael McGuire and he is the opposite and believes in the professional tool for the job. He loves his Soltek and Open Box M, both of which had to be imported as art shops here don't stock them. I attach a photo of my set-up (a poor snap, I'm afraid) and one of Michael and his Soltek.

Other gadgets? I have a Viewcatcher compositional tool which is useful and withstands abuse. You can set it to the proportions of your canvas or paper and it helps frame the view you want to paint by holding the Viewcatcher at arms length or closer to the eye.

My latest gadget for oils is a wet panel carrier I made out of corrugated plastic - the kind election posters are printed on - and the best advice I could give anyone is to narrow down your choice of sizes for painting outdoors to one size and half that again. For example, in my case, I use both 9" x 12" and 6" x 9" panels. Thus, both fit easily into a box with channels 9" wide. If you insist on having a wide variety of sizes, carriers to accommodate them are complicated and heavier and it is easier just to work close to your parked car so you can leave one wet painting while you paint another.

[Elaine Hurst]

Some interesting sites on building your own pochade box and a panel carrier:
http://artezan.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-build-pochade-box-for-pl...

http://www.pochadeboxpaintings.com/2009/03/how-to-build-pochade-box...

[Plein Eire Administrator]

From Elaine Hurst:
"I have one of those grey viewfinders also. I like it since you can change the sizes. I also use old slide frames, and have cut two pieces of mat into a tiny mat, then cut them in half so I can changed sizes. Tony, would you sometime when it is convenient, take a close-up photo of your paint box? I would like to make one that is less heavy than the one I travel with, it is a bit bulky. Still less heavy than a French easel, for travel."

[Sean Quinn]

I have been suffering from a touch of heat stroke so regarding cleaning hardened masking fluid from brushes what I meant to say was that TURPENTINE is the best solution I have found(not petrol).

Sean Quinn said:

My tip regarding equipment is to use a half-inch wire mesh,(available in hardware stores)  the kind that's used for rabbit hutches.   You jam it into the container that contains the white spirit or water depending whether its oils, acrylics or watercolour you are using .   You have it half submerged in the liquid and half out of it, so that  after you've used it to wash the brush clean you can then  dry it off considerably on the part that's out of the liquid.    It gives a good wash to watercolour brushes so that I find I can use masking fluid without it going hard on the brush, as the brush is thoroughly washed between passages.   Incidentally I have found  the best way to get hardened masking fluid off a watercolour brush is to soak it in petrol.

[Patrick Brennan]

The image above is the best bit of kit I carry around when out painting. At its simplest it is two bots of wood and a rugby boot lace. Keeps wetpaint off every thing else

[Sean Quinn]

Pictured is an improvised easel based on an Aldi stores camera tripod.   The large plastic palette is cut from the bottom of a "found" plastic box.   The full integrity of the tripod has been maintained and can be still used for a camera support.   The relevant point is that these 16 euro tripods will be on sale in Aldi again in the next week or so.

[deirdre shanny]

Hi Sean,.........................Heres a quick tip that ive found very useful in my studio for cleaning brushes.I bought a stainless steel strainer[ they come in different sizes, and are used to sieve the likes of flour etc in baking ]place carefully in the bottom on your container that contains whitespirits [ with the handle bent vertically. This wee invention of mine is unique and works a treat. TRY IT OUT. 

Sean Quinn said:

I have been suffering from a touch of heat stroke so regarding cleaning hardened masking fluid from brushes what I meant to say was that TURPENTINE is the best solution I have found(not petrol).

Sean Quinn said:

My tip regarding equipment is to use a half-inch wire mesh,(available in hardware stores)  the kind that's used for rabbit hutches.   You jam it into the container that contains the white spirit or water depending whether its oils, acrylics or watercolour you are using .   You have it half submerged in the liquid and half out of it, so that  after you've used it to wash the brush clean you can then  dry it off considerably on the part that's out of the liquid.    It gives a good wash to watercolour brushes so that I find I can use masking fluid without it going hard on the brush, as the brush is thoroughly washed between passages.   Incidentally I have found  the best way to get hardened masking fluid off a watercolour brush is to soak it in petrol.

[Plein Eire Administrator]

Here are some more tips: http://pleineire.ning.com/pages/general-plein-air-tips

[Plein Eire Administrator]

I know not everyone will approve of this but there is an app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad which users may find of interest.

The very popular 'Viewcatcher', which is a small, neutral-grey, plastic viewfinder to help isolate your composition, is now available in a digital version. The digital version downloaded to your camera-phone gives an instant greyscale version of your scene. Of course you can do this with most ordinary digital cameras these days but the Viewcatcher app also has grid overlays to help in scaling-up as illustrated in the link below.

The Viewcatcher ( the old-fashioned plastic gizmo) is €9.99 at Spectrum in Wexford.

and the Digital Version is available to download to Apple hardware by following the link.

Anyone a fan of the Viewcatcher? Anyone tried the digital version? Is it a gimmick or the best artists' friend  since they stuck rubbers on pencils?

[Elaine Hurst]

Ever since going to Art in The Open this year (absolute highlight of 2011 for me!), and schelping my art stuff all over Ireland by train, plane, car, and bus, I am going to make things MUCH lighter in weight.  The tripod I use for the plein air pochade box has got to go, and in its place, a much lighter one needs to appear.  The pochade itself is ok, although the one I have does not allow for larger than 11x14 inches.  I am going to over-haul the whole thing, a little at a time.  Actually watercolors are looking better and better!  I have a wonderful Heilman box for my pastels when I take them outdoors, and I just need to work on the weight issue with my oils.