I know how it feels – the holiday is booked and you’re looking forward to having some time to get creative but what on earth shall you pack; too little and you’ll feel ‘oh I should have brought that’ and too much ‘what a waste of space bringing it all’. You don't want to feel restricted but you also recognise that you want to avoid having so much with you that you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of materials you have available. It is a bit of a balance so I thought I’d share a few things I consider when packing my holiday art kit.

How am I travelling and what restrictions are there?
How you travel will determine how much and what you can take on holiday. For example on flights there are restrictions of types of substances you can pack and volumes of liquids, plus limited baggage allowances – check with your airline. In this scenario you may prefer to buy all/some materials at your destination.
If you’re travelling by car you have more freedom but then the temptation is to take more than you actually need. Remember you need to pack clothes as well!

What are your expectations?
Knowing what sort of art you want to create while you are away is a good way to narrow down the list of materials you need.  Personally, I tend to concentrate on sketchbook work – purely capturing memories of the place I’m visiting. Acknowledging this allows me to narrow down my kit by striking off acrylics, palette knives/big brushes and boards/canvasses to paint on. You can do the same with your list when you work out what your intentions are art wise.
As an aside, getting creative is supposed to be fun so don’t feel that you have to create just because you brought some art materials on holiday with you – just do it when you feel in the mood to do it after all it’s a holiday.

Where will you be creating?
I also consider whether I’ll be creating work at my accommodation and/or only when I’m out and about. If I’m needing an art kit that I can carry this again prevents me from overpacking. Knowing where I’ll be creating art forces me to think about bringing items such as tablecloths to protect the furniture in the accommodation and making sure I have a bag to carry my ‘outdoor’ kit.

What is my outdoor kit?
I carry a small rucksack, something to sit on (I have a folding small stool but it could also be a plastic bag), kitchen roll sheets, wet wipes and then my art materials (small sketchbook, pencil case, mini home made travel box of bits of colour)
 
How do I reduce the load?
First of all I take a small hardback sketchbook no bigger than A5 – I use one that allows for me to work across the whole open spread rather than one that is ring bound. Hardback so I don’t need anything to lean on. Mine also has an elastic to prevent the pages blowing around but an elastic band works just as well.
I have a pencil case that holds soluble and non-soluble pens and pencils plus a pencil sharpener. I also have a water brush and make sure I’ve filled the water reserve. Instead of taking a full selection of colours I’ll cover the spectrum of colours I want available across a mix of mediums and avoid taking a duplication of colour eg I wouldn’t take an indigo Inktense block and an indigo watercolour pencil.
I also reduce the load I have to carry by avoiding taking the original product boxes and make use of broken stubs of eg Inktense blocks rather than the full size blocks. I create my own mini travel box of bits – one that I can just grab when I’m off out.
One thing I don’t take is an eraser as I’m not worried about making mistakes – I’m only working in a sketchbook.
 
So what did I actually bring on my recent holiday?
I intended doing sketches outside and some studies back in the accommodation. I took:
A selection of sketchbooks (Seawhite) – a variety of sizes and paper weights to allow for a mix of materials: small hardback sketchbook for day trips., 8” x 8” hardback sketchbook 160gsm paper and a 10” x 10” softback sketchbook for use in the accommodation.
My mini travel box of bits of Inktense blocks
A selection of inktense pencils, watercolour pencils and Neo color II crayons – note that I like soluble materials!
Faber Castell aquarelle pencil 8B
Faber Castell graphite pencil 4B
Art Graf Soluble graphite stick
Berol fineliner black pen – you can pull the ink with a damp brush to create lovely effects.
Biro – permanent allowing for washes over it.
Derwent water brush.
A view finder – so I could use it for my ‘take time to notice’ process. Check out the blog about this here.
Collage paper (selection of colours/patterns), scissors, brush/water pot and matt medium as glue
 
What did I wish I had brought along?
White acrylic paint – because I wanted to combine it with a collage I was working on but other than that I didn’t need it.
A charcoal pencil/stick – I fancied something that gave darker marks in the rain!
 
I think I  travel reasonably lightly but you really could travel with less – there are no rules about what you should take. You could just make use of papers that you acquire on holiday to draw on e.g. postcards, paper bags, maps, receipts, packaging etc and limit yourself to a single pencil and pen. You can create patterns with stones/vegetation, make marks in sand/earth and photograph what you create. You could just record everything that catches you eye on camera to explore later in the studio.

And above all, whatever way you get creative, just enjoy it!

SO WHAT IS AN ARTIST TALK?
In this case it was a chance for artists' exhibiting at the Echoes exhibition at the 44AD artspace to chat about the inspiration and story behind their work.  Often if you chat to an artist they will happily talk about the inspiration but the conversations are often fleeting and you feel like you've just scratched the surface. I found it fascinating to listen to the other artists and find that 10 different artists had 10 different approaches to creating their art. 

WHAT PAINTING DID I TALK ABOUT?
I was sharing my thoughts about a small painting of mine called 'Time Stands Still'. My inspiration started with a trip to the north Norfolk coast; as a family we had hired bikes and during our excursion had come across a place called Wells-next-the-Sea. A perfect place to stop to rest our legs and in my case get my sketchbook out. 

 I don't know if you've been here but the sky is expansive with clouds racing across the sky and the sand was being whipped up in flurries.  And it was empty - so looking out across the beach towards the pines on the headland watching the tide ebb & flow it felt to me timeless. There are many places I'm sure you've encountered, which author Richard Rohr calls 'living in deep time', where you have a heightened awareness and feeling of timelessness; where the boundary between self and reality blurs and time stands still (Oliver Burkeman.) You can feel yourself being transported back hundreds of years realising that nothing has really changed. Generations before you would have walked along the same tracks with friends and family, had similar conversations and looked upon the same scene (though perhaps not quite as eroded!)

HOW DID THESE IMPRESSIONS FEED INTO MY PAINTING?
It's a feeling of a thread weaving itself across the ages - that ethereal sense where nothing is quite fixed or distinct that I used as a starting point when painting this piece. I started with charcoal and ink using line and washes to describe the sense of the coast, then colour and marks to create a sense of shifting and indistinctness. The loose marks suggest movement physically and also metaphorically across the ages. It is one of four paintings that I created inspired by this stretch of coastline.

Have you ever been to a place and struggle to recall anything special about it? Did you take lots of photos on holiday yet on return find they all merge into one: another seascape, another pretty cobbled street, another restaurant? And at home do days merge together with nothing marking them as special?
In this blog I’ll be sharing how I get under the skin of a place, how you can learn to notice like an artist. I’ll be introducing you to a simple but effective exercise that helps you STOP, NOTICE & RECORD what is around you and then looking back you’ll be better able to recall the day/time/location. It’s a method I use to peel back the layers of a place and what makes it special to me. It is also a brilliant starting point if you’re feeling stuck art wise or don’t feel you are particularly creative as it doesn’t need you to be ‘good’ at art.

REASONS TO TAKE TIME TO NOTICE

1. SLOW DOWN – life is busy. We’re often rushing from one thing to another forgetting to appreciate the now. This exercise gives you some space to breathe, take back control of your time and silence your thoughts by focussing. Perfect if you need a bit of time out.
2. KICKSTART YOUR CREATIVITY. The process of noticing can ignite ideas and get those creative juices flowing. The doing as much as the results will get you looking at things through the eyes of an artist.
3. CREATE A TREASURED BOOK OF MEMORIES. By gathering together what you notice you’ll be collating a little treasure of memories which when you look at in the future will take you right back to that time and place you first created them.

 
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
It’s a perfect project which can take as little as 5 minutes at a time – something you can dip into when you need it. If you have longer you can spend longer repeating the exercise. After a while you will find that you can’t help yourself noticing and it makes going for a simple walk more interesting and inspiring – welcome to my world!

SO HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?
What you need:
A small sketchbook
I use an A6 softback sketchbook by Seawhite (16 pages). This size can just be tucked in a bag or pocket until you need it.
 
A viewfinder
Optional but it helps you focus in on a small area rather than getting overwhelmed by an entire view. A view finder is a plain bit of card (A6 is fine) with a square/rectangular aperture (3 – 4cm) in the middle.
 
Pen/ Pencil
Nothing fancy is needed – you can even use a ball point pen or felt tip!

SO WHAT DO I DO?

1. On a walk take your time to look at things you normally rush past. Look up and look down. Stop and take it all in.  Notice what is catching your eye?
2. Once you have identified something get your viewfinder out and decide on a segment you wish to copy into your sketchbook.
3. If you haven’t done this before I suggest you draw around the viewfinder aperture on a page in your book and just copy what you see in the viewfinder into that small rectangle on your sketchbook page. As you get more confident you won’t need to do this.
4. Work quickly just putting in the main shapes / lines and then write notes around it about why it caught your eye.
5. Turn the sketchbook page and repeat. It’s as simple as that.

Tips: if you find yourself taking more than 10 minutes on a single image then you need to set yourself a time limit. You are not trying to create beautiful, finished sketches – by all means do this another time – but with this exercise you are just capturing a moment in time.
 
10 PROMPTS / IDEAS OF THINGS TO NOTICE

1. Ironwork details: e.g. shapes of railing finials, tree guards, handrails, hanging basket brackets, manhole covers
2. Roofline shapes / chimneys / the junction between the sky and roofline
3. Patterns: e.g. on tiles, wood surfaces, fabric, reflections
4. The play of light through trees and shadows cast
5. Changes in texture and surface materials
6. Interesting signs and different fonts
7. Negative shapes – the spaces between objects.
8. Having a coffee? – how about the shapes of the cups and handles
9. Colours – what colours do you like together?
10. Leaf shapes

 
WHAT NOW?

1. If you enjoyed doing this exercise then why not carry on and build up a collection of memory sketchbooks – you could even supplement them with photographs. I find it’s great to look back through my sketchbooks and remember the day I did mine.
2. If there is an image you really resonate with then why not go back and do a longer study or use it as a prompt for more artwork.
3. If you’d like to continue this journey but would like some support and guidance then join me at one of my sketchbook workshops.