New toy for spring

Were you ever so excited about a trip that you practiced packing for it? I guess I'm that way. My wife and I are renting a big old house on Little Cranberry Island in Maine at the end of May. My brother will come with us. You leave your car on the mainland and take the ferry to the island. I've been practicing packing my art supplies. I want to make sure I have everything I could possibly need but I want to travel light nonetheless.

The smaller, newer box sitting on top there is a thumb-box. You can't quite see it but there is a thumb-hole cut into the bottom. Those brushes are tucked into the thumb-hole for the moment.

I'm a sucker for these kinds of things. The flat palette is a tray that slides over the tubes of paint. The box lid has a slot for a 6 x 8 inch canvas panel on which to sketch.

The older, paint spattered box on which it sits is called a pochade box. Pochade is a French word for paint sketch. The french impressionists got painters out of the studio and painting outdoors. But they couldn't have done it without the American invention of the tin paint tube.

That older pochade box was made of recycled wood by a handyman in Canada from whom I bought it over eBay some years ago. But pochade boxes require tripods. And I'm thinking I could use something even smaller and more compact.

Last year I saw this new thumb-box deeply discounted and I grabbed it, but I haven't had occasion to use it yet. It's made by Jullian, the French outfit that made the first portable sketch easels with collapsible folding legs that the impressionists used in the 19th century. Those so-called French easels are big and somewhat heavy, but, yes, I have one of those too,

This thumb-box gets eight tubes of paint so I have to be judicious about what I choose to take along. Right now I'm sticking to two versions of each of the primaries, plus a red/brown and a white:

Ultramarine Blue (Williamsburg handmade paints)
Cobalt Blue (Old Holland)
Vermillion Extra (Old Holland)
Perylene Crimson (Williamsburg)
Burnt Seinna (Old Holland)
Italian Yellow Ochre (Williamsburg)
Indian Yellow (Gamblin)
Quick Dry White (Gamblin)