For the travelling artist using only public transport & carrying a backpack presents its own particular challenges. In June we made just such a trip to Sicily not intended by my beloved to be an art trip but of course he should know that to me EVERYTHING is an art trip & if I don’t draw the time gets diluted into the a homogenous memory of places seen but not recorded.
The principle issue is weight and space : sketchbooks & art materials are heavy, so what to take? In the end I reluctantly scaled down the A4 sketchbook to A5 size. Fabriano makes a dinky one with plenty of sewn pages, a tiny hand-held thing by my standards.
I also took a small selection of water soluble Caran d’ache neocolours to capture the intensity of colour in southern Italy, a couple of pencils, a rainbow multicolour pencil (are they for children? They are certainly wonderful and random), my tiny watercolour box with water bottle attached, one reservoir brush kept full of water for quick line drawings. and one flat 3/4 inch synthetic watercolour brush. I find you can get so many effects with them using the different edges, corners or just using the flat part for washes stops my sketches from getting too fiddly, After all the job was to be quick and get impressions of things before long suffering partner got bored. (I had to buy a small tin of hairspray to seal the drawings in the heat as they were smearing.)
Train travel leaves plenty of hanging around time at stations (though painting the trains isn’t quite as exciting after the first one), people watching, or eating brightly coloured granitas while sipping a luminous Campari Spritz. The rucksack still felt far too heavy in the 30 degree heat but I blame the impulse buy of Sicilian dried fruits, spices and a tin of olive oil I couldn’t resist.
Travelling artist tips:
Early morning sketching:
Find a friendly, though not too busy cafe, order coffee with pasta con crema (croissants stuffed with pistachio cream) or maybe find a spiaggia (beach) & hire a ‘lettino e umbrellone’ for the full luxurious Italian beach experience. The latter affords shade, a little table for art materials plus unlimited time to hang out while being guarded by the fierce beach attendants. Lots of life models in all manner of shapes, sizes and ages are available. Reminder to self: try not to stare too hard.
Added bonus is that there is always delicious food nearby as this is Italy.
Evening sketching: find an outdoor bar with displays of coloured alcohols preferably in a picturesque piazza & with a not too attentive waiter who is trying to hussle you out. (Beware that drinking one vino too many unless you want to develop your abstract art skills.)
Italians find your sketching rather curious but uninteresting, rarely bothering to disturb you though it's certainly a good way to meet people.
At home your sketch book will teleport you back to those moments & the little drawings will be a catalyst for works to come. The dark alley, the colours of a wall, strong light & blue skies, limpid seas, shadowy courtyards, noisy markets, beautiful vegetables, ugly skyscrapers, you’ve stared at them all & the process of translating them has begun way before you try to make ‘art’. Alchemy begins here.
Buon viaggio!