Darla Bostick’s Art
Workshop/Retreat
Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu
Artist Supply List
This workshop is for your favorite media. Bring the materials you like working with!
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Digital camera & supplies:
Camera & manual
USB cord
Battery charger or extra batteries, depending on power source
Memory card for camera—check with Darla on the type of card your camera uses to be sure it is compatible with the photo printer Darla brings for your use
PAINTING:
We will have the option of painting outdoors or the luxury of indoors. If you are accustomed to plein aire painting, you probably already know what supplies to bring. Ghost Ranch has gorgeous views. Even if you don’t plan to paint outdoors, you will still be gathering some images at the different sites by sketching or photographing.
*Paint palettes – The photo above shows what Darla uses. You can travel with this but I try to keep mine flat, which means overhead storage on the plane. What you use at home is fine, but a plastic plate can work if necessary.
*Brushes—one 1” flat brush, one rounded brush, one fine brush. Easy to get and cheap is a set of natural bristle brushes like Loew-Cornell at Hobby Lobby, set #321. A 2- or 3” flat brush sure is handy. Bring what you like to use.
*Water sprayer (I travel with a little 4 or 5” sprayer you can find in travel sections)
*Masonite work board & watercolor paper:
A work board is great, but flying with one is near impossible. I will bring some plastic to cover the tables, so if you are flying, don’t worry about this. I find the easiest paper when flying or painting on site is to use a watercolor block (12” x 16” or larger!) which stretches my paper and gives me a base to paint on. It’s great for painting outside for those reasons. It also fits inside my suitcase. When I travel with full size loose watercolor paper on a plane, I roll it as loosely as possible in the largest tube I can find. Bringing 4 sheets for the workshop should be fine. I use 140# Cold Press Arches or Kilamanjaro from Cheap Joe’s, but 300# is great too.
Yupo paper Bring one sheet of yupo if you can…if you have never used this, you can buy a small pad of yupo pretty cheap. If you have used yupo before, feel free to bring your favorite stamping textures, liquid acrylics, inks, etc. Supplies for yupo can get crazy and if you are flying you may not be able to bring more than your yupo ‘paper’. I will bring some materials for the class to use.
*Water bowl. Well, no sense in flying with one of these unless you prefer your own. I’ll bring some bowls we can use.
Pencil (I use those pencils that don’t require sharpening…either mechanical or those that you take the lead out the top and replace at the bottom, thus pushing forward a fresh lead) Watercolor pencils also work.
Kneaded eraser
Sponge (either natural or cellulose)
Paints: When you are starting out, it can get expensive fast. If you are testing the water, bring at the minimum 4 colors of paint! Good colors for our workshop would be raw sienna, Indian yellow, sepia, and then a color like cobalt turquoise, Indian red, earth green or alizarin crimson. More colors are fine, but 4 will get you by for this week. DO NOT BUY “ACADEMIC” STUDENT GRADE PAINTS even if you are a beginner. You’ll regret it when you fall in love with watercolor painting! I have 3 palettes of paint I use and another I travel with. I use a lot of Cheap Joe’s paints. He is online at Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff.
DRAWING:
Journal (no lines of course!) I like the ones that lie flat when open
Lightweight stool for taking outside. Obviously this may not work when flying. A gardening knee pad would fit easily into your suitcase. You just want something softer than rocks to sit on when we are out and about.
Darla will provide: Colored pencils, watercolor pencils, pastel pencils, conte crayon/choarcoal sticks & wax resist materials for group use. She will also bring Pitt pens, but if you have your own, you may want to bring 1 or 2.
TEXT:
We will be incorporating some text into our artwork on one exercise. If you have some basic calligraphy pens you may want to bring them but they are unneccesary.
OTHER SUPPLIES:
Flashlight
Bug Spray
Sunscreen
Hat or visor
Water bottle
Sunglasses
Abiquiu rooms do not have alarm clocks, so it’s a good idea to bring one