Category Archives: Art Travels

Oil paints bursting in flight?

Posted on May 18, 2011 by jennifereyoung| Leave a comment

Here is a recent question from a reader that I thought I’d share at blog central:

I am planning to bringing 100s of oil paint tubes back from Beijing and I am wondering if they are at a high risk of bursting? Your advice would be highly appreciated. Best, J.

…and my response:

Dear J- If these are tubes of artist’s oil paints, my experience has been that there wouldn’t be much danger of that. After all, they are regularly shipped all over the world. And while some paints do contain driers and additives that are considered combustible, most are made with just pigment and a nut oil or linseed oil.  

But don’t take my word as law.  Most of the well known brands will provide material safety data sheets (MSDS) for their art materials, which should provide a flash point of the paint in question (combustibility at a given temperature). You could always check the information provided on the MSDS with the airlines to see what their restrictions are. Most likely you will need to check the paints if you are flying commercially. Otherwise they could get confiscated if you try to bring them in your carry-on (but you probably are already aware of that!)

Good luck! (And check out a prior, more detailed post of mine on flying with oil paints from more info.)





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In the works- Rooftops, St. Cirq La Popie

Posted on May 10, 2011 by jennifereyoung| Leave a comment

Just thought I’d do a quick post of what is currently on my easel. It’s a 24×30″ painting of  a location I visited on my last trip to France; St. Cirq La Popie. St. Cirq La Popie is probably one of the most storybook-pretty villages in France that I have yet seen. I am actually hoping to do a little plein air painting today during baby E’s naptimes, so this will be brief. Let’s hope the nap gods are with me!

France landscape St. Cirq La Popie

 

France landscape St. Cirq La Popie





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Posted in Art Travels, Drawing & Sketching, French Landscapes, Garden paintings, Painting Demonstrations, The artist's life

Pigeonniere W.I.P.

Posted on April 4, 2011 by jennifereyoung| 3 Comments

I am short on time today, so this post will be short on words (rare, I know!) I do have pictures to share, however, of my current 20×24″ painting on the easel. The plan is for this to be a larger, more developed version of the plein air piece I did in France (shown here) with more of the sky featured.

Compositional sketch:

France painting work-in-progress by Jennifer Young

Tonal sketch:

France landscape painting in progress by Jennifer Young

Sky lay-in (first go):

France landscape painting in progress by Jennifer Young

Ground and shrubs lay-in:

France landscape oil painting by Jennifer Young

France landscape painting in progress by Jennifer Young

Now the fun begins! :-)





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Posted in Art Travels, Drawing & Sketching, French Landscapes, Painting Technique, Plein Air Painting

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Shadows of La Crete

Posted on March 28, 2011 by jennifereyoung| 2 Comments

I achieved my goal of finishing up this painting last week, but it left no time to post. This is the final product of the resurrected work-in-progress I last wrote about.

 Tuscany landscape painting by Jennifer Young

“Shadows of La Crete”
Oil on Linen, 24×30″
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The Tuscan region known as La Crete is known for its dramatic undulating hillsides. I loved the way vineyards and olive groves were cultivated clinging to the slopes. One afternoon while we were staying in southern Tuscany near Montalcino, my husband and I took a drive through the winding roads of this stunning landscape. We spent the day driving, stopping to walk around, lunching and sketching (well I did the last bit). No plein air painting there, but it was still such a great day!

Now that I have the wee one and I’m on a very different (but awesome) journey, I am not sure when I will get back there to La Crete. But I’d really love to go back and dig into some plein air painting one day.  Nevertheless, I am grateful to have been able to go at all, and to have taken so many good reference photos for my studio work. 

Over the years I have learned how to take better reference photos. When I first started landscape painting I’d really be disappointed by the lack of information I’d gathered from a trip. It seemed like I’d take a ton of photos, but often what I found when I came home was that I’d only have one shot of the most intriguing scenes. I learned from those experiences to take a number of shots of each location, from several angles, at several exposures. I also took close up “detail” shots of foliage, flowers, textures, etc.   It still does not compare to the information that becomes seared into my brain whenever I can photograph and actually paint on site at a location, but it helps a great deal. My photos don’t really do justice to my memory of this beautiful land, but hopefully through my paintings (if I do enough of them) I will be able to express how I feel about this place.





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Posted in Art Travels, Italian Landscapes, Tuscany Paintings

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Finally, it is done!

Posted on March 15, 2011 by jennifereyoung| 2 Comments

Pop the champagne, drop the confetti!  Well, I have reason to celebrate any way. I finally finished this blasted painting! It’s hard to believe I started this painting of Venice LAST YEAR, but there it is. I struggled with it at times, set it aside, tackled it anew, only to come away with yet more to do. I had to completely rework certain areas, especially the background buildings, because even though I was trying to be true to my photos, my hubby (one of my best critics) told me they didn’t make sense the way I had them before. I do think he was right. I’ve said it before…if it makes a better painting, change it. In any event,  I am glad I persisted because I think I am finally reasonably happy with the end result.

Today is a pretty gray, low-light kind of day so I may need to reshoot it to get better clarity in the photograph (done). But I have to take advantage of a napping baby by sneaking this post in when I can.

Painting of Venice Italy by Jennifer Young

“A Private Tour”
Oil on Linen, 30×24″

sold

In all of the times I’ve been to Venice (it’s been several but I’ve lost count), I’ve never taken a gondola ride. I always say that I’m going to, but I never seem to want to justify the expense. I guess I’d rather eat a delicious Venetian dinner instead!  From walks along the waters’ edge, I’ve always enjoyed seeing  couples gently drifting down some narrow passageway. It’s something I really should try to do before I hang it all up. Next time, for sure!





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Posted in Art Travels, Italian Landscapes, Venice Paintings

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