Kara Paints
  • home
  • Blog
  • Artwork
  • Contact
  • SHOP
  • Newsletter sign up
  • Downloads

Let's talk about travel (part two)

8/11/2014

 
As promised, art and travel! 

I always start with the best of intentions, but they rarely pan out the way I want them to. It's quite possible that I'm not carving out time and space the way I should. It's also quite possible that planning to make art at the END of the day is the worst plan ever, because I am a morning person. 

I have one more trip this summer, and I'm planning to use this journey to figure out the best way to travel and make art. 
There are many people who travel and make art so well: 

Mary Ann Moss of Dispatch from L.A.
Jane LaFazio
Julie Fei Fan Balzer of Balzer Designs

I'm really great at making art before I leave. I'm not so good at making travel-inspired art when I get back. 

Before we left for Sicily, I took an old, beaten board book and gave it a new life as a recipe book.  The project took me the better part of a week, and I loved every minute of it. 

I wrote out the recipes on tags and then illustrated some of the ingredients on the pages. I prepared the pages by coating them with gesso and a small amount of paint for color. 
I'm not a huge fan of starting with a white background--so few things in nature are stark white. 

When I travel with the intention of making art, I pack supplies. I have gotten it down to things that will fit inside a gallon-sized ziploc bag.

A list of travelling art supplies:
1. Sketchbook
2. A pencil and eraser
3. Permanent pens (I like Sharpie fine point)
4. Watercolors
5. Brushes (Round 3, Round 8, 1/2 inch flat)
6. Tape
7. Camera (which doesn't fit in the bag)

I think what happens is that I get so wound up in being there that I let the camera capture the moment/composition. 
Then I go home and get waylaid by the unfinished projects in the studio. 

But like I said, I have one more trip this summer to see if I can work out a system that works for me. 
Picture
Picture

Comments are closed.

    Kara DeCarlo

    Visual artist & librarian. 

      Kara’s Monthly Roundup Newsletter

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Categories

    All
    Art
    DIY
    Girl Scouts
    Nature
    On Books
    Science
    Travel

    Archives

    March 2023
    July 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    December 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014

    Categories

    All
    Art
    DIY
    Girl Scouts
    Nature
    On Books
    Science
    Travel

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from Jim Larrison, beketchai, KathrynW1, Orin Zebest, gruntzooki