(or Seven Things That You Ought To Have IN THE CAR. All The Time. Anyway.)
One: Tall kitchen garbage bags. Avoid damp trowser bottoms if you have to sit on a dew-covered bench. Fold into a pad to add insulation between you and a metal bench. Use to cover your pochade box (or you) if you get caught in a shower. Spread below your easel if you are in a location where you have to catch your pastel dust. Use as a sled on snow-covered slopes.
Two: Bug spray or bug repellant of some kind, chemical, electronic, or magical. There is nothing that will drive you, shrieking, out of a field more quickly than a swarm of gnats. Well, maybe a swarm of mosquitoes. Other uses for chemical version: bear repellent (works at close quarters only), after-hike cologne, solvent for underpainting, auto fuel. For electronic version: gag gift. Alternative use for magical: pick up line repellant. You wish.
Three: Binoculars. Keep compact binocs tucked away in the car at all times. There are numerous occasions when your eyesight will need a boost or when you think you see something very interesting way out there but just can't be sure. Besides, mavens say that you can't really do justice to a plein air scene until after you have taken the time to walk all over it, through it, and around it. If restrictions of mobility, distance, barriers, or the imaginary lines of "private property" constrain, binocs can get you there. Or help you pretend you're there.
Four: Duh! A roll of paper towels. Use for: Picnic napkins, wipes, and placemats. Soaking up spilled coffee. Cleaning fingers covered with pastel dust. Dry wipes for panpastel applicators. Blotter for watercolor painting. Lumbar support. Lens-less telescope.
Five: Stash of small bottles of water. Anyone who lives or has car-toured in the Southwest knows about always keeping water in the car. Your life may hang in the balance. Other more everyday uses: dampen paper towels to wash pastel dust off hands, to dip your brush for watercolor or gouache underpainting, to help swallowing asprin, to slake thirst at picnics, to soak neckerchief and tie it around your neck on warm days, counterweight for the tripod easel, etc.
Six: Windbreaker, lightweight, hooded, and neutral-colored. Protects when the weather double-crosses. Hood (along with the beanie, see below) keeps your brain from losing essential heat when it's chilly. Neutral color won't reflect untoward hues onto your painting surface. Dress jacket up with a shining bow tie for white-tie-and-tails events. Dress jacket down with a neckerchief for hoe-downs.
Seven: Hats. One big-brimmed sun hat and one beanie for the colder days. Invert the big-brimmed one and place at the base of your plein air tripod; you may make coffee money. Place big-brimmed one on building and hire mariachi band. Invert the beanie to hold harvested raspberries.Misc: stuff . . .(rev.4Oct09)
. Tooth Brush (take an old tootbrush, preferably a stiff one, use a hacksaw to cut the handle off pretty close to the bristle end; voila! --> a tiny traveling nail brush)
. chapstick
. reading glasses
. moistened hand cleaners in packets
. fleece hoody
. rubber bands
. binder clips (at least 2 big ones)
. Swiss Army knife (with scissors)
. folding 3-legged chair
. MORE ---> Suggestions for the New Plein Air Painter, from Katherine Simmons (06Mar)
What's on YOUR list? Click on the COMMENTS button and contribute to the general wisdom.
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