Packing my art gear for France -
I will be heading off to France to lead a watercolour workshop in a few weeks and I am setting out my art gear to decide what to take. In the past, I have found packing light with my art gear is a good rule to follow. Lugging around cumbersome art bags and art gear takes the fun out of en plein air unless there are some cute French guys to carry my art gear for me  :)
I've posted a few photos of what I will take.
I will take a palette of 18 colours, put the tubes in a zip lock baggy and in my carry-on backpack ( in place of toothpaste and shampoo which I can buy in France). My brushes will also go in my back pack as well as a Arches wc block and some wc sandwiches. I divide a full sheet of Arches into smaller pieces ( 1/4 and 1/8 sheets), then sandwich them in an old cover from a wc block that I  have. Bulldog clip this together and I have my paper, a backer to clip a sheet to to paint, and a place to store my finished paintings safely.

My watercolour sandwich ready to go. I also made a mini sandwich held together by an elastic band.

Arches wc coiled pad, masking tape, stacking water containers, Arches wc block ( I work on 140 lb cold press paper), small film casette for a mini water container, my small Homee travel palette, a tea towel ( takes up less room than a roll of paper towels), moleskin sketch book.

Here is a selection of some of my travel palettes. A small travel half pan set by Van Gogh; my old Winsor & Newton wood travel set with a porcelain palette and half pans ( classic, I love it); my W&N tubes; if I want to have an extra small mini palette I use a couple of pill boxes; my Homee outdoor palette ( it is too large to take on a plane tho); and my new Homee palette which is 18 well and smaller. I will fill it with paint a week before I go and let the paint dry so it doesnt leak. If I need fresh colour while I'm in France I will have my tubes with me.
My palette of colours: ( All Winsor & Newton artist grade unless specified) Raw Sienna, New Gamboge, Winsor Yellow, Scarlet Lake, Winsor Orange, Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Rose, Cerulean Blue RS, Winsor Blue RS, French Ultramarine, Cobalt, Burnt Sienna, Vandyk brown, Indigo (Holbein), Winsor Green, Hookers Green ( Graham), Quinacridon Gold, and Turguoise (Graham).

This is my Yarka travel palette. I love the colours and that they stay moist but they are very irritating when I close the lid and they stick to the top cover. Think I will crazy glue the suckers down at some point! The palette lid can also be difficult to open sometimes. Very frustrating. I won't be taking it with me this time.

I'm careful on how I pack my brushes around, I dont like the heads to brush up and get messy. So I cut small sponges to fit the slots in my Art Bin, and cut slits in the sponges, the brushes slide into the slits and keep each one safely apart from each other. Snug as a bug.
I use my Art Bin to carry my pencils ( HB), erasers, pensil sharpener, small natural sponge, and my Pigma pens.
I use Sakura Pigma pens size 01 and 03, waterproof and archival ink for my sketches. Then I can put watercolour over top. If you use a brush tube (pictured at top) try to secure your brushes so they don't jossle around in the tube. It can make a mess out of the brush heads and break hairs.
For my carry on backpack, I put in my Art Bin with brushes etc, my tubes of paint in a ziplock bag, my arches wc block and my small wc sandwich, water containers, small water bottle EMPTY, masking tape, moleskin sketch book, and my personal stuff plus passport , money , camera etc.
My palette full of paint goes in a sealed plastic baggy and in my checked suitcase, along with my larger wc sandwiches, W&N Bristol wc easel and folding tripod stool. And a few clothes if Im lucky to have some room left!
So that's my travel art gear. I will also take my ipad mini. Keep you updated on the upcoming painting trip.

Last Thursday we had a special guest at life drawing at Santa Fe Gallery...Garry Hamilton who is the CSPWC Regional Director for Quebec. Garry stopped by my place on a vacation on the Bruce Peninsula and I invited him to join us. Garry works directly in watercolour over a loose ( and beautiful ) pencil sketch and made several small watercolour studies that evening. It was great to watch him work. I have posted one photo of his sketches.
Thenthe next day we decided to meet for some en plein air painting so I took Garry up to one of my favourite places to paint here on the peninsula - Halfway Log Dump. It is a magical place that I have painted several times. We had a successful day of painting and good weather. It was a real pleasure to spend time painting with such an accomplished watercolourist. I have posted a pic from Halfway Log Dump too. Dont be fooled by its name, it comes from the fact the loggers used to dump logs over the cliffs down to the shore for boats to pick up.

This past winter, I was feeling like painting something totally different so my 2 dogs, Holly and Brinkley, became my subjects. I also switched to acrylic on canvas for these.  Most are 6x6in.