![]() A guide to painting jacaranda trees Step 1 I have flown with paints in hand luggage and have never had a problem, but the caveat is the interpretation of otherwise clear regulations is often left up to an individual security officer and their decision is final. A 12×16” (30x41cm) block of paper will fit comfortably within almost all airlines cabin baggage regulations too. Easels or tripods are also permitted in the cabin, provided they are small enough. Tubes of paint carried on board must be no more than 100ml capacity and fit into your zip-lock bag along with your toiletries. Most manufacturers have very comprehensive advice online. ![]() Most oil paints are permitted but solvents, mediums and varnishes (apart from those that are water based) are generally forbidden and you may also have a problem with palette knives in hand luggage. Unfortunately, things are not quite so straightforward for oil painters. The good news for watercolour and acrylic painters is that everything you use to paint is considered safe to take on an aeroplane, either in the hold or take on as cabin baggage. Kit check: What art materials can I take on a plane? In this case, the sun came out giving me some useful shadows and a couple of elderly men sat on the bench to put the world to rights – always a welcome addition to any scene. Another benefit of painting en plein air is that things will happen as you paint. It is amazing just how a few steps to the left or right can dramatically change a scene. My memory of the day was that the purple colour was much more dominant than the photograph suggests, and I must have moved to the right to paint as well. I always aim to capture the feel and atmosphere of a subject, rather than attempting a literal copy. I painted it just as I would paint a tree at home, and instead of green I used a variety of tones and hues of purple interconnected with twigs and branches that were slightly darker than usual. In the case of the jacaranda, it was a relatively normal tree but with purple flowers, rather than green leaves, dominating. When I am confronted by a subject I have never seen before, I always try to relate it to something that I have. The flowers bloom before the leaves appear. In the spring, the jacaranda has a glowing purple mantle of flowers with dark branches that appear almost black against them. In this article you can see my painting of a scene I found there, which is close to the railway station and features two jacaranda trees. Although a coastal town and port, it lacks a beach which is probably the reason for the lack of development that is apparent elsewhere on Portugal’s south coast, and also why the old town still retains much of the traditional flavour of the country. ![]() ![]() The holiday is based in Olhão, close to Faro. One of my first destinations of the year is Portugal, where I tutor a workshop for Art in the Algarve. The mixes may need to be slightly different, but the pigments remain the same. One fundamental lesson I learned many years ago was that if you have a good, varied and basic palette of colours, these will be suitable for anywhere in the world. One of the most interesting aspects to this is that I get to see subjects that are different – but generally not completely different – to what I see back home in Northern Ireland and it is always a challenge to work how to tweak my techniques in order to tackle them. I am in the lucky position of travelling, tutoring and painting around the British Isles, Europe and beyond for about six months of each year. Link copied to clipboard Grahame Booth shows how to paint jacaranda trees in watercolour, with a focus on capturing local colour
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