Gifts at every price point for the artist in your life
(even if that’s you).
Mabef
field painting easel M27: Non-artists often buy painters French easels,
but please don’t do that. They’re heavy and tough to set up. Instead, choose a
smaller, lighter, more efficient easel—the Mabef field painting easel M27. The
pivot head makes it useful for both oils and watercolor. It comes with
extension arms on which you can set a palette. I’ve had an earlier version of
this for two decades. It’s my number one choice for watercolor, and I’m
constantly loaning it to new painters. But a word of caution—the cheaper
knock-offs of this easel don’t work well. Mabef has been making easels since
1948, and the quality is good.
Want a larger easel? Jerry’s sells a version of a Gloucester
easel called the
Beauport. Ken DeWaard uses one,
as do I. It’s the best easel for large canvases in a stiff wind.
Testrite
#500 studio easel: This is the teaching easel I use in my studio.
Aluminum is light, easy to move, and easy to stow. Want a larger version? Try its
big brother, the
Testrite #700. I’ve had one for twenty years without trouble.
Princeton brushes:
Over the years, Princeton has provided great value for money, but many professional painters eventually gravitate to something else. Sadly, I can no longer recommend Robert Simmons, because my last two orders have contained defective brushes. I’ve been given
so many Princeton SNAP! in goodie bags this year that inevitably one made it
into my painting kit. I was pleasantly surprised. Series
9700 is a natural bristle brush made for oil-painting. Series
9800 is a synthetic for oils. Series
9650 is made for watercolor and acrylic.
Despite having a quiver full of upscale watercolor brushes,
I’m just as likely to grab my Princeton
Neptunes when working in watercolor.
If you really want to surprise someone with your inside
knowledge and impeccable taste, choose Rosemary
& Co. brushes for watercolor or oil, or New
York Central for oil painting brushes.
QoR watercolor kit:
QoR (pronounced “core”) is a product of Golden Artist Colors of New Berlin, NY,
so you can be assured that they’re a quality product. Golden has created a new
binder for a higher-pigment paint that can rival oils and acrylics for vibrance.
I use QoR myself, and for my workshops aboard schooner American Eagle, but you
can easily buy ready-made sets of 6-12 pigments from any large paint dealer
online. For acrylics, I’d recommend a Golden starter
set hands down. For oils, buy Robert
Gamblin or Winsor & Newton.
It’s harder to make a one-size-fits-all recommendation for pastels, but
anything sold by Dakota Art Pastels
is a good product.
If your artist has all the paints he thinks he needs, why
not surprise him with some gouache? I have some Turner Design
Gouache that I trot out whenever I’m thinking through ideas, but there are
many fine brands.
In every case, less is more. The artist typically needs no
more than a dozen colors, and it’s better to get a better brand with fewer
pigments than a large assortment of bad paint.
Sketchbooks: I buy Strathmore
300 series Visual Journals and consume them like candy. They’re Bristol, so
you can draw or paint on them. For fast outdoor sketching, I like the Strathmore
400 watercolor series. They’re so affordable, I have no worries about wasting
paper.
Palamino
Blackwing Pencil: I use mechanical pencils myself, but this was
recommended to me by writer Tim Wendel.
I’m dying to know what makes a pencil worth slightly more than $2, so I’m
asking for it for Christmas.
A workshop: I can’t finish this without a plug for my
own workshops. They allow the artist the chance to work with a group of
like-minded people, without distractions, in settings of unparalleled beauty.
In 2020, we offer two
all-inclusive trips aboard Schooner American Eagle, where I’ll teach the
fundamentals of watercolor on the fly (and you get to sail, too). And there’s
my annual intensive workshop, Sea &
Sky at Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park. Register by January 1
and get an early-bird discount on any or all of them!
