Travel journal? - The long way to Athens
Beginning of July, I had a work conference in Athens. I try to avoid using the plane in Europe (and also avoid going overseas…), so I started to look at how to get from Vienna to Athens without using the plane. It turns out - it may be a very expected conclusion - that it is definitely not easy! My boyfriend was the best help to organize the travel, and we decided to go together, and use part of the journey as our summer holidays. To be honest, I would not have picked Southern Europe to travel end of June/beginning of July, but you have to do with what life (or work in this case) throws at you. Also, we took some days off to visit some of the places, but it would have been quite hard to shorten the trip by more than a few days, without being completely dead by the time we got to Athens (jumping from trains to buses to ferries can be quite exhausting if you don’t take it slow)!
We decided to first go through Italy (night-train to Roma, and then a few days in Napoli), then take the ferry from Bari to Patras (that was the worst part of the journey’s carbon footprint), spend a few days in Corinth before going to Athens. And on the way back we had a quicker pace and went through Bulgaria (with a stop in Sofia), Romania, Hungary and back to Vienna. Quite a journey!
You may wonder what all of this has to do with art? A few things. First, I had a couple super light supplies with me and did a few plein-air sessions during the journey. Second, travelling is super inspiring and it just fuels your creativity for weeks. I have a few projects related to this travel that I want to work on in the coming months. Finally, I wanted to share this experience of slow travelling, because, just like art, it is a way to reconnect to the present moment and to your surroundings. I can’t picture myself wanting to re-connect with nature (and more) through plein-air painting, and flying accross Europe to do so.
Here we go again… Choosing my travel art supplies
It is always the same. Every time I want to go out and paint, I torture myself with endless questionning of the supplies I should bring. This time was no different, and I had the extra constraint that we were backpacking. So I had very little space to bring art supplies. I decided to go super compact and bring everything in my fanny pack, except my trusty mixed media pencil case. I took 2 (but only used on) A6 sketchbooks, a few watercolors and gouache in mini palettes, and filled my pencil case with colors that insipired me for Southern Europe. I am planning to write / film more about how I build my palettes and choose my colors, so stay tuned for that!
This super light setup was still quite versatile, and allowed me to have nice plein-air sessions. As the weather was extremely hot, I always tried to find shades, either natural or in the car trunk…
I also picked a few supplies in Athens, as Winsor&Newton designer gouache was way cheaper than in Vienna. I had always wanted to try it out and thought it was a nice opportunity. As I’m trying to keep all toxic colors from my palette (it makes it easier when you’re travelling and plein-air painting - I may go back to that in a future blogpost), I took extra care when choosing my colors. I still got a little bit overboard and ended up buying quite a few tubes of gouache (but all non-toxic pigments!). I also added two very small sketchbooks from Stillman & Birn that I can’t find in Vienna.
A selection of art supplies from Athens
Back in the studio… What happens now?
As you may have noticed, this blogpost is not a travel journal (I did not even do one, I was fully focusing on enjoying every bit of the adventure!), it is more on the art-related parts of the travel. If you are interested in a more detail account of what happened during the travel, let me know, I would be happy to share tips and stories of this adventure!
I had planned to use an accordeon sketchbook as my travel journal (that was the second A6 journal that I brought with me). I had started organizing it, with a map of the travel and swtaches of my supplies. I ended up leaving it at the bottom of my bag and not using it… When I came back home, I created a layout based on a few photographs I had taken, and decided to fill in one side of the sketchbook with a recap of the trip in images. To make it a little extra, I wanted to try it out digitally and define precisely the layout, color scheme and all. I spent hours on the digital version and was so proud of it that I decided to print it and put it directly on the sketchbook! (I struggled with the dimensions, but Canvas was my best friend to print it in the right dimensions - the white borders allow me to fold the sketchbook back without folding the image). Not all steps of the journey could fit into the final image, but I am still super happy with how it turned out, it’s an amazing visual memory of the travel.
I am currently thinking of a post-travel journal format, that could convey this feeling of slow-travel and enjoying the adventure, not only the destination. This will be a background long-term project, but definitely something I want to give some thoughts to. I am not sure yet which format this could take, mayhaps a short graphic novel? If you have any ideas, feel free to share them!
My travel journal with the printed recap of the journey
