Creating Custom Tube Colors for Plein Air Travel

As we embark on a plein air oil painting workshop in Abiquiu, New Mexico, one of our final tasks has been to create custom tube colors which reflect some of the main mass tones we will encounter in the area. Artists who love to travel and paint en plein air may have to deal with landscape color palettes very different from their usual home colors. We want our students to be able to make good progress when they arrive, so we are supplying some custom tube colors to help them begin the challenge.

We pre-mixed in advance some of the landscape mass-tones that we will likely encounter and loaded them into empty tubes, ready to use. (Empty tubes are available from large art suppliers in both 37 ml. and 150 ml. sizes.) We discovered years ago that it was easier to mix these in the slower pace of our studio environment rather than rushing the process on location under the pressure of the clock ticking. This can jump-start our painting when we finally arrive and make the workshop experience s…