Plein Air Landscapes
in Oil
Weekend Workshops with Jim Coe
MATERIALS LIST
1. SET OF OIL
PAINTS-any brand,
artist's grade preferred.
RECOMMENDED BASIC COLORS:
White (Titanium or Titanium-Zinc)
Ultramarine blue
Cadmium Yellow Pale, Light, or Lemon (shade varies with manufacturer)
Burnt Sienna or Transparent Red Oxide
Cadmium Red Light, or Medium (shade varies with manufacturer),
Permanent (Alizarin) Crimson, Permanent Rose Deep, or Quinacridone
Rose
º Genuine Alizarin
Crimson is not considered light-fast, and has been replaced with modern
substitute pigments in many brands of oil paints; these approximations
of the traditional Alizarin are typically called "Permanent Crimson"
or "Alizarin Crimson Hue".
º Additional optional colors: Cadmium Yellow Deep or Orange,
Viridian, and Cobalt or Cerulean Blue.
º Other EARTH colors, such as Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Raw
Sienna and Raw Umber can be useful additions to the palette, individually.
I prefer Burnt Sienna as my one earth color; I sometimes add Yellow
Ochre, as well. But all of the earth colors can be mixed from the
primary pigments on the palette listed above.
º Please try to avoid Pthalo (Winsor) Blue, Prussian Blue and
Pthalo (Winsor) Green, which are very strong and staining pigments
and can be difficult to control
º Flake White is made from lead and is poisonous.
º I do not use Black. Although many doctrinaire painting teachers
tell students to avoid it, I recently tried adding it to my palette
during a weeklong workshop and found that it was very useful in mixing
certain dark values. Give it a try sometime.
2. PORTABLE EASEL
- Folding "French" box easel is optimal; but expensive.
Other collapsible easels will work fine, as well, but I recommend
that students paint standing up if they can. Open Box M in Wyoming
makes a beautiful, but expensive pochade box for plain air painting,
which mounts on a photographer's tripod. The entire set-up is very
portable and lightweight. On the opposite end of the price scale,
Mabef makes a "universal folding easel" that can be found
for about $30.
3. PALETTE -- Wood (preferred) or paper pad
palette - 12x16" is the recommended size-and if you do not have
a French style field easel that provides a shelf for your palette,
then make sure your palette has a thumb hole so you can hold it. Untreated
wood palettes need to be rubbed with a coating of linseed oil the
night before first using them.
4. RAGS OR PAPER TOWEL -- I always have several
available; best are pieces of old cotton clothing or sheets torn into
square-foot pieces. Some artists prefer paper towels.
5. SOLVENT AND A WIDE MOUTH JAR OR CAN -An
"odorless" thinner, such as Weber Turpenoid or Gamblin Gamsol
is best. Do not buy the "natural" or citrus-based thinners.
6. PAINTING MEDIUM AND A SMALL JAR OR CLIP-ON PALETTE
CUP --Gamblin "Galkyd", Winsor & Newton "Liquin",
or Grumbacher Copal Painting Medium, or a mixture of turpentine and
linseed or stand oil (traditionally with a bit of dammar varnish added,
as well).
7. PAINTING OR PALETTE KNIFE --I prefer a painting
knife, with an offset handle and a narrow, diamond or tear-drop shaped
blade about 2 ½ " long.
8. BRUSHES: AN ASSORTMENT OF LONG-HANDLED, HOG BRISTLE
BRUSHES. I recommend Robert Simmons' Signet series as the best
value; also fine are Isabey Special, or Grumbacher Gainsborough. I
particularly like Silver Brush's Grand Prix series - especially for
round brushes -- but they are expensive. I recently tried Utrecht's
two premium series of bristle brushes, and I have found that the series
209 filberts (dark handles; made in Japan), seem to be equal in quality
to the Signet brushes, and I recommend them and a good value.
RECOMMENDED SIZES AND SHAPES OF BRISTLE BRUSHES:
#4, #2 round
#4, #6, and #8 filberts
#8, #10 bright or flat.
Please avoid very small sizes.
9. PANELS OR STRETCHED CANVAS: For a weekend
workshop, I request that students bring at least three surfaces to
paint on. I recommend any of the following:
º Commercially prepared canvas panels
º Pre-primed linen or cotton canvas on stretcher bars
º Masonite panels primed with acrylic gesso
(Suggested sizes: 9 x 12 or 11 x 14, up to 12 x 16… but please,
no larger than that).
10. OPTIONAL
EQUIPMENT:
º SKETCHPAD with pencils
or charcoal for preliminary sketches.
º UMBRELLA - A clamp-on artist's umbrella to shade your work
(clamps on to the easel). Some painters prefer a larger beach umbrella
that stands up from the ground; the problem is that one often needs
a hammer to pound the pole into hard ground. Obviously, avoid any
brightly colored umbrellas that will affect the light on your painting.
º VIEWFINDER - a piece of board with a rectangular hole cut in
it for viewing and framing the scene. An empty 35mm slide holder works.
I use two corners of matboard from a discarded mat that was cut to
fit a watercolor painting. The corners can be clipped together to
make any rectangular shape.
º WET-PANEL BOX - a wooden or plastic box with slots to separate
and hold panels or stretched canvasses with wet paint.
º FOLDING CHAIR or STOOL
º HAT with a wide brim for shade
º SUNBLOCK and INSECT REPELLENT
º DRINKING WATER
ART SUPPLY SOURCES
These are some of my favorite
sources for paints, brushes, linen and other supplies.
A few have storefronts; all will sell materials by mail order, and
all of them have websites.
Art Box and Panel Company
6718 E. Ranch Road, Cave Creek, AZ, 1-877-496-1987, www.artboxandpanel.com
Art Supply Warehouse (ASW)
5325 Departure Dr., N. Raleigh, NC 27616, 1-800-995-6778, www.aswexpress.com
Daniel Smith, Inc.
4140 First Avenue South, P.O. Box 84268, Seattle, WA 98124, 1-800-426-6740,
www.danielsmith.com
Dick Blick Art Materials
P.O. Box 1267, Galesburg, IL 61402, 1-800-828-4548, www.dickblick.com
Guerilla Painter, Phantom Canyon Ranch Co., Old Schoolhouse Road,
851 CR76h,
Livermore, CO 80536, 1-866-762-4233, www.pochade.com
The Italian Art Store
84 Maple Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07690, 1-800-643-6440, www.italianartstore.com
Jerry's Artarama
P.O. Box 58638, North Raleigh, NC 27658, 1-800-827-8478, www.JerrysArtarama.com
Pearl Paint
1033 East Oakland Pk Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334, 1-800-221-6845,
www.pearlpaint.com
Rochester Art Supply
150 W. Main Street, Rochester, NY 14614, 1-800-836-8940, www.FineArtStore.com
Utrecht Art Supplies
6 Corporate Drive, Cranbury, NJ 08512, 1-800-223-9132, www.utrecht.com
Open Box M, LLC
1392 Southfork Rd, Cody, WY 82414, 1-800-473-8098, www.openboxm.com
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