Weeks 64 + 65: There's nothing better than family time + new art supplies.
Two jam packed weeks in Northeast Ohio!
Hey, hello, and welcome back to another weekly update! It’s been 65 weeks since we sold our house in Austin, Texas to travel full time in a converted camper van we’ve named Walter — and our first time back home in Ohio since we’ve been on the road!
We’ve been having the best time visiting family — it’s all been a blur! So I decided to combine two weekly updates into one.
Family Time
Here are some of the highlights from the past two weeks:
Pancake breakfast in the old barn at Beaver Creek State Park. They make the pancakes with flour ground in the mill at the park and they’re so darn good. This time they had buckwheat and buttermilk, yum!
Family pizza get together and meeting our new nephew, Beau, for the first time.
Playing card games at Jason’s parent’s house. J’s mom keeps winning! We’ve been playing Five Crowns, Play Nine, and Phase 10 almost every evening that we’re there.
Hiking part of the North Country Trail with my Dad and Jason back at Beaver Creek State Park. This was pretty cool since we hiked part of it back in Week 62 at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Getting to see our nephew Colin before he went back to college.
Watching our niece Madi’s first freshman volleyball game of the season.
Going to the cemetery with Dad to put flowers on my Grandma and Grandpa’s grave — I still really miss them. They would have been 101 this year.
After the cemetery we stopped by White House Fruit Farm, where we got their famous blueberry donuts (first time having a donut in 2 years!), apple cider, and apples, of course. They had a “pick your own flowers” event on the farm this year too, so I just had to do it! I made 2 giant bouquets to give to the moms. It makes me feel closer to Grandma and Grandpa every time I go there because they used to go all the time.
Eating alllll the fresh produce from farm stands in the area, including some awesome corn-on-the-cob that Dad delivered to us via his Harley trike! So good!
New Art Supplies
We knew when we started traveling full time travel that we’d have trouble getting packages — and we were right. So we’re taking full advantage of being “in port” for a while to order a few things — including art supplies! Woo hoo!
Tonic Watercolors and from St. Louis Art Supply
First on my list was ordering a selection of Tonic watercolors from St. Louis Art Supply:
This is their house-brand of watercolors and they sound like the perfect solution for living full-time in a van and having problems getting packages. Just listen to this description:
“Tonic Watercolor is made right here in our St. Louis HQ, unique formula that we developed over two years of experimentation and research. We designed Tonic for maximum pigmentation, and you'll notice that a pan of Tonic is more concentrated than many other artist-grade watercolors.
With just a few drops of water, you can make bold, saturated marks on wet or dry paper. To make typical, translucent watercolor washes, you'll need to add more water than you might expect.”
I can’t wait to try them — I’ll report back after I’ve used ‘em for a while.
Sodalite Genuine Watercolor from Daniel Smith
Next up was a tube of Daniel Smith Sodalite Genuine. After I learned about yooperlite back in Week 62 I just had to order a tube. I had some a few years ago and it’s such a cool pigment. Here’s that yooperlite rock I found again:
According to the Pure Michigan website, they’re “syenite rock rich with fluorescent sodalite, also known as Yooperlites®… These seemingly normal, gray rocks are rich with fluorescent sodalite and glow a vibrant orange and yellow under a UV light.”
I really missed having sodalite on my palette and had to get some!
It’s like having an old friend back — and just look at that granulation! This will replace indigo on my palette for a while.
Collaboration with Letter Sparrow
I also received a package of sample dot cards from Kelly of Letter Sparrow handmade watercolors. We’re working on a top-secret project coming later this fall and I needed to pick out the colors for our collaboration.
Just look at these beauties:
Stay tuned for more about our collab — cannot wait to share! It’s going to be so fun!
Lake Michigan Book Press
I also ordered a sketchbook from Lake Michigan Book Press to use with the Letter Sparrow collab — the pages are Arches cold press paper so I’ll be able to share lots of fun watercolor techniques:
The book is even more beautiful in real life. Highly recommend LMBP. Tell Crystal that Lisa sent you!
With Drawing Sets
I was super excited to receive the Ultralight 18 Color and the Deluxe 72 Color Drawing sets from With Official. It’s such a cool concept — you swap the colored leads in and out of your pencil, so you can have a ton of colors with you in very little space! There’s even a lead pointer so you can sharpen them and not worry about getting pencil shavings everywhere when you’re out and about.
Can’t wait to add these nifty pencil sets to my toolbox — they’re going to be perfect for van life! I plan to keep the Ultralight set in my daypack and the Deluxe Drawing set in the van.
I’ll have a review of them soon — stay tuned.
Art Toolkit
Last but not least, I ordered 12 demi palettes from Art Toolkit so that I could use them for teaching during art residencies and demos. This is a dream come true — I’ve wanted to have ATK palettes that people could use for a long, long time.
If you come to my public outreach program during my artist residency at Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania on September 20th you’ll get to use one of these new palettes! Woo hoo!
More details as I know about them — until then, please feel free to share this post with friends in the area.
That’s a Wrap!
That’s a wrap on this update! I’d love to hear which new art supply you’re most curious about — and why.
Thanks for following along! — Lisa, Jason & Walter-the-Van
I often wonder how often you use the Art Toolkit. It seems you enjoy the palettes a lot, and indeed they are convenient.
I’m intrigued by the pencils. If you wanted to create an entire work in pencil with a variety of colors, would it be tedious to switch the leads? Can’t argue that it isn’t a brilliant space saver though!