Travelling and making art; two of my fave things. Both simultaneously equals double the fun?
On paper it seems to be a glamorous ol’ time – setting up an easel in front of the erupting Mt Agna, and letting wind flow through your hair while inspiration runs through your veins as you unleash your creativity on the canvas… Before I get too carried away with the mental imagery, let me just re-live that time I opened my suitcase to find the entire contents of my black Indian ink pot leaked everywhere…aaaand I’m back.
So, let me paint you a picture of what making art while travelling really looks like (pun intended).
First of all it requires rigorous planning and organising. Obviously you have to bring all your supplies with you because there are no art store runs if you forgot your fixative (depending on where you are of course). In my case, I planned to be on the road for 3 months. How much paper do I need to bring? Should I bring my flat brush set? My white pastel is getting a bit short, should I stock up? How much white pastel will I even use? Should I buy 3 extra? 5? Maybe an extra suitcase for white pastel?! You get the jist.
Once you have everything that you think you will need, and have finished praying to God that you have everything that you think you will need, then comes the packing tetris game. The aim is to get everything nice and packed together with no gaps to avoid things breaking or sliding around and making a mess. I obviously didn’t do too well the first time, cue in my Indian ink incident – RIP pastelmat – even copious amounts of bubble wrap didn’t save me.
If you are looking to improve your resourcefulness, then go travelling and make art. If you are someone that requires a specific structure or have a particular organisation to your creative process, then making art while travelling may not be for you. The only certainty that I made sure of when choosing accommodation was that there needed to be a desk (which turned out to be harder to find than you might think, and I ended up compromising on other things like location). Everything else was up to universal whim. If you turn up at your accommodation and you are blessed with good lighting, awesome, if not too bad, make art in the dark. I turned up at a place with no windows in the main room. I had wifi issues at one of my accommodations, so I had to go down the road and connect at a cafe if I needed any interweb assistance while making art (which is a pain if you are in the zone). I also ended up using reference photos on my phone a couple of times – not ideal. The process is usually just slower and the potential for roadblocks is higher than working at home.
However, if you set aside those potential issues for a moment and appreciate the beauty and spontaneity of the experience, you might find it to be very inspirational. My life is enriched by travel and I think that is translated to the canvas. Painting outside in nature is highly recommended (by me), but maybe not in Bali wet season when the humidity is incomprehensible and the rain threatens to dampen your creative process on the constant (I’m on fire with these puns).
Weighing everything up, I say travelling while making art is amazing, nothing can beat the excitement I get when I sit in nature by a body of water and just draw. I am from New Zealand and I know that I am in the best place for that and I appreciate that so much! But there is something about combining travelling to exciting new places and whipping out my brushes that I just cant simulate back home. I think I enjoy the challenge of it more than anything!