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Writer's pictureJenny Potter

GLAZED OVER: Painting outdoors

I spend more time planning my painting kit than I do my holiday wardrobe, weighing up the pros and cons of watercolours, oils and pastels. During one memorable holiday in France I borrowed my host’s plastic drinks trolley to transport my kit. One day I might invest in a metal field easel, portable table and pop up tent…


Here’s my basic checklist:

  • Small primed boards or a large clipboard with clips/tape to secure oil paper

  • Disposable palette pad

  • Small tubes of oil paint and/or oil pastels

  • Brushes and palette knife

  • Small containers of medium, solvent, brush dip, chalk

  • Small watercolour sketch pad, pencils

  • Small watercolour box with water container, brush and waterproof ink pen

  • Paper towels, wet wipes and plastic rubbish bag

  • Masking tape

  • Case for transporting wet boards (or cardboard rings made from loo roll to separate boards when stacked on top of each other and taped together)

  • Something to sit on (a portable stool or plastic bag)

  • All-weather gear, phone, hat and snacks



Working outdoors

  • Prime and mask paper surface in advance.

  • Use a clipboard to secure the paper.

  • Protect with wax paper to transport if not fully dry.

  • Consider using Degas's “plénitude d’essence” technique to create a fast-drying pen-and-wash-style painting. You will need tube oil paint that has been thinned by leaching the oil from it and adding a strong solvent.

  • Or follow Constable’s preferred method as described by London’s V&A Museum:

“When working outdoors, Constable painted on fragments of canvas, millboard or homemade paper. As he explained to a friend in 1825, his oil sketches 'were done in the lid of my box on my knees as usual'. In his open-air oil sketches, Constable applied colour in a variety of ways – rich impasto (thickly applied paint) and glazes (translucent oil paint), heavy dots of bright colour and light touches of pure white. Quick strokes with a brush bearing only a small amount of paint gave a dappled 'dry brush' effect, allowing the colours underneath to show through.”

V&A Museum, London

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