Keen to get outdoors and make art, but not sure what you’ll need? Here is a comprehensive list of the art equipment Anna Dakin uses when she makes art outdoors.

• Windsor & Newton watercolour pallet

This lightweight watercolour pallet is perfect for making art outdoors because it is light weight and has a built in mixing tray. It comes with a small paintbrush, and the colours are lovely!

• Watercolour paper

This watercolour paper comes on a block, which means that it is glued down. You paint directly onto the block, let your painting dry (which doesn’t take long in Central Australia!) and peel it off carefully with a funny little device that comes free with the paper, when you buy it from this link.

• Viewfinder

These are deceptively simple – I get overwhelmed looking at the landscape and these help me decide what to paint / where the edge of my image will be. You can make one yourself at home, or if you’re feeling lazy, buy one here. I got mine from Kmart, but I can’t find the same ones online.

• Watercolour brushes

It can be nice to paint with a selection of brush sizes – big brushes for filling in larger blocks of colour, smaller brushes for the details. The above watercolour pallet does come with a small brush which you can get by with, but extra brushes are nice.

• Squeeze water bottle

I use a small silicone water bottle for two reasons – 1. I want to keep my watercolour paint separate from my drinking water. I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m running low on drinking water, and have to make a choice between painting or drinking. In an emergency I can drink my paint water but I wont paint with my drinking water. 2. the outdoors gets TRASHED by humans and I don’t want to accidentally add to that, so using silicone is good because it wont break if I drop it, and its not spreading micro plastics around.

• Silicone water bottle

Similarly, I use a silicone bottle for my USED paint water. Paint water is a pollutant and its best not to dump it on the ground. Here is a nice lightweight bottle you can use to take your dirty paint water home. Watercolour paint water can be tipped down the sink or thrown into your garden at home.

• Masking tape – for creating an edge around your painting and/or taping your paper down so it dosen’t blow away
• Paper towel – for dabbing up excess water / watercolour paint

Happy painting!

Keep an eye out for a blog post about outdoor gear & equipment for overnight expeditions.