Art Camping!

Is that even a thing? If it’s not, then it should be!

I’ve been brainstorming ways that I can get more enjoyment from my restored teardrop trailer Sally. 

Sally's homey interior.

It would be great to connect with other women vintage camper enthusiasts, or other artists. Better yet, there have got to be more women like me, who love both. 

I'm looking for friends who want a little creative adventure to come out and play!

One of my favorite painters, John Singer Sargent, painted this plein aire portrait of his friend Claude Monet while he was doing his own plein aire painting! 

There is a time-honored tradition of making art out-doors. Painting “en plein aire” (French for outdoors) was popularized during the Impressionist period, when oil paint was first made available in tubes. (Before that, artists had to grind their own pigments and make their own paint in their studio: a messy and time-consuming job.) Tubed paints are easy to toss in a pack to hit the road, or hike to a pretty spot and start painting right away without too much prep. The Impressionists were obsessed with light and its constant changes throughout the day. Plein aire painters have to work fast, to catch the colors of nature in any given moment before the light changes. 

Today, of course, we have unlimited options. If we want to do art outdoors, we can use watercolors, pastels, oils, acrylics, colored pencils, and more. And although camping artists are probably going to focus on nature as a subject, there’s no reason to be limited to that. We can paint landscapes, still lives, portraits, or anything we imagine.

And we are not limited to painting either! 

Other portable crafts include: knitting, embroidery, origami, photography, and writing. 

Collage and assemblage can easily be accommodated at the campsite. 

Just bring along a small kit of supplies: scissors, glue, and a surface to work on. 

You can bring your assemblage elements from home, or even incorporate items found in nature during our adventure: shells, leaves, pebbles, flowers, bark.

I’ve put out an invitation to my female artist friends, to get a sense of how many would be interested in art camping, and to let them share their ideas as well. 

There are a number of local artist meet-up groups already, 
each with a different focus or theme. 

But so far, there is not an organized group of art campers. 

As far as I can tell, this is a new thing! 

Who wants to make it happen with me?