I have bought a table easel like on the picture below. It has no legs, so you need to either hold it on your lap, not easy, or put it on something stable. But fits into any backpack. I used 50×65 cm oil paper cut in quarters, fixed on a piece of corrugated packaging pad. Since the resulting sheets are exactly the size of the easel, the box that the easel is shipped in can be used to store two wet sheets, fixed to inner sides with paper clips. The drawer holds your paper palette.

Sorry plein air

Sounds like you are going on an interesting journey! What a way to travel and experience the landscape. I have written a few blog posts[/URL] with tips and techniques for plein air painting, and which equipment and supplies to take with you in order to cut down on weight and space issues. I hope this helps.

You need to tell us where you intend going? Is it going to be an extended trip or just a day out?
Here is my current viewfinder on a day trip.

Five year extended trips are quite different and you’ll need a different sort of bike and very little kit.

Dave.

Sounds like a great thing to do over Crimble, so the bike part of things you will have sorted as the locals know more about packing a bike than anyone!.

When I go painting outside with a group inevitably the best painters have the worst gear that they have just botched together from what they have.

Canvas or paper taped on a piece of light board should work. If you have two pieces of board the same size you can use blue tack to separate them while the two paintings dry, once dried they can go in a document envelope. Clip the board to the bike or other things while you paint.

My Wife did a trip following the Mekong River using local bikes a few years ago.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Dave.

Somwhere I have an article written during the 1920s with advice for the young student artist or architect about to do their “year in Europe”…in a more inocent age. The author recomended a good-quality used motocycle and sidecar to explore the countryside since a motorcycle could get into the ancient villages and country roads where a car couldn’t go back then. It listed the supplies, gear …and parts… to pack in your side car to explore France, Spain or Italy with. One advantage they listed was that often you could get the motorcycle on the train in the baggage or mail-post car as “luggage”.

I’d consider getting one of those Baikal offroad motorcycles with sidecar. They have a driveshaft to the sidecar’s wheel for extra traction offroad, and a reverse gear for backing up. The front steering’s designed to adjust for extra stability to counteract the sidecar’s drag.

I could see watercolors and a sketchbook, but I’m hard-pressed to image how to deal with wet “oil” paintings…even in canvas boards or oil-paper. Even when I travel in my Jeep SUV, the back can fill quickly with canvas-storage boxes.