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9+ Best Travel Art Supplies for Painting Artists Who Travel

Last Updated: July 8, 2021
Written by: Elisabeth Larson Koehler

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A map of the world on a table with travel art supplies lying around it

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One of the perks of painting is that all of the necessary materials are fairly portable. This article will guide you through which travel art supplies are the easiest to pack and take with you.

We are lucky in this day and age to be able to carry our paints in small paint tubes and have easels that are light and foldable. However, there are a LOT of different materials out there and it can be hard to know what exactly you need to paint and travel. I will break down exactly what you will need, so that you can easily be a traveling artist, painting on the go!

Painting Surfaces Best for Travel

This is one of the more important of the travel art supplies you’ll need to remember to take with you. As wherever you paint you will always need something to paint on.

a hand with two rolled up canvas art supplies ready for travel

I recommend using loose gessoed canvas that can be rolled up. Boards will take up more space than stretched canvas. Not to mention you have to be a little more careful not to puncture or damage stretch canvases!

You can gesso your own canvas or purchase it already primed and ready to paint on! When you are ready to start your painting, you will simply cut out a size that is appropriate for your project. Then attach the piece of canvas to a hard board with some masking tape. This hard board will act as a support for all of your paintings on your journey. You will be able to use both sides if you wish to do multiple paintings at a time! I do this often 😉

Art Supplies for Storing Paintings and Canvas

To transport your canvas I recommend to roll it up and store it safely inside a mailing tube. This provides excellent protection for your painting surface and keeps it from getting any creases.

an artist holding a mailing tube that is being used as an art supply carrying case

In addition, I recommend for you to use the mailing tube to store your completed paintings on your travels ( once they are dry ). Again this is a wonderful way to protect your work from getting any folds or creases. When traveling we often accidentally drop things or stack things on top of one another. Therefore storing your work in a mailing tube alleviates a lot of worry about any damage that may incur to your work!

✨ A quick tip about rolling up paintings – keep the painted side on the outside! I know this sounds odd but it is the best way to take care of your paintings while rolling them up. Rolling oil paintings inwards can cause them to chip or flake which will become visible when laid out flat again.

Travel Art Carrying Case

What if your paintings are still wet and you need to continue your travels? Enter the wet panel art carrying case ! You can purchase one or make your own. They allow you to store wet painting safely inside a box in such a way so that it won’t touch anything else. I personally keep my painting taped down to a board to allow for me to place my painting safely inside a carrier if I need to do so.

Art Supplies to Speed up Drying Time

If you are using oil paints and would rather not have to deal with wet paintings while traveling. There are specific travel art supplies that can help speed up the drying time.

Liquin for traveling artists

Liquin will help a great deal to speed up the drying time! Using just a little will go a long way. Add it to your paint at times when you would normally use linseed oil to thin out your paint.

Whenever I use Liquin in a painting, I take out a small amount of it from the jar using a palette knife and place a little pile of it onto my palette. This way it is easy for me to add it as needed while I mix my oil paints .

Lightweight Travel Easels

An easel can be a little bit of a headache for artists who are traveling, as it is most likely the largest item out of all your travel art supplies. However, there are some great travel easel options out there for every budget!

Pochade boxes for travelers

an open pochade box sitting on a surface with a view of the city behind it

A pochade box is one of the most popular easels for plein air painters and traveling artists. They are also quite historical as they came into popularity in the 19th century when artists started to paint out of doors. Pochade boxes tend to be small and are highly portable as you can store not just your materials inside them but also your painting. You can purchase one or make your own out of a cigar box!

pochade box mounted on a tripod, showing how to travel art supplies

French easel travel supplies

I personally use a French easel when I travel as well as in my studio. So, it is nice to be able to use the same easel that I always use when on the go. Similar to the pochade box, it allows you to store a lot of supplies inside the easel including your palette. It can be folded up smaller which makes it easy to carry and transport.

Travel easel in a room with art supplies on the easel's palette tray

However, the downside to a French easel however is that it can be a bit heavier than other options, due to its wood construction. So, if you are looking for something particularly lightweight, this might not be the best option for you.

Tripod easel with palette box

The tripod easel and palette box can sometimes be a good alternative to the traditional French easel. The versions made out of aluminum can be lighter weight and less prone to breakage. In addition, this variety gives you a good distance between the painting and the palette – something missing with a pochade box.

A good camera tripod easel with a palette box can be a little pricey. However, if you are planning to do a lot of plein air painting or walking with your painting supplies. It is really worth it to get a lightweight easel, as your back will thank you! 🙂

Brushes and Brush Cleaner

For traveling I recommend the Guerilla ‘mighty mite brush washer’ . It is leak proof, you don’t have to worry about soiling things when traveling with with linseed oil or turpenoid. In addition, it works as a terrific brush cleaner that lasts a long time.

the 4 oz Mighty Mite Brush Washer travel art supplies container

Palette cups

You could also use oil painting palette cups. These are small metal cups that you can clip onto your palette. They are not meant to be a brush cleaners however. So you can’t clean your brush in this as thoroughly as you could in a regular brush cleaner. However, these make for super useful travel art supplies. As they work great as receptacles to keep your linseed oil and or turpenoid in – when you need to use those in your painting.

Paints for Travel

Most paint tubes come in a large or small size – typically 37 ml or 150 ml size tubes. So, when traveling with your painting supplies it is best to use small sized tubes. As this will help a great deal with keeping the weight down.

a large blue tube of oil paint next to a smaller orange tube of paint

If small sized paint tubes are still too heavy and you don’t need to take that much paint with you… Then you could purchase small containers to store your paint in. Just keep in mind, that the paint will dry quicker in such containers than if it remained in a tube!

So, if you are planning to travel and paint for just a few days then small containers work nicely. However, not if you will be on the go with your travel art supplies for a couple of weeks or longer. As the paint will likely dry out over that period time.

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several small travel art supplies paint containers filled with oil paint

Traveling with Oil Paints on an Airplane

It is possible to travel with your oil painting supplies on an airplane . However, there are a few things that are valuable to know before you start packing your travel art supplies! After traveling many times with oil paints – believe me when I say that you will appreciate knowing how to fly with oil paints!

Start Taking your Travel Art Supplies with you!

Whether you are traveling by car or plane, all of the tips for painting above will help a great deal. As you now have a good base of which are the best travel art supplies to take with you. So that you can have a smooth experience as a traveling artist.

It can be extra work to carry your painting supplies with you on the move – but doing so is deeply rewarding and more than worth it…

The experience of getting to paint the places you visit is very rich. You notice and experience things you would not have otherwise. And, you have the extra perk of having a recorded visual memory of your travels!

Have you ever painted while traveling before? If so, I would love to hear how your experience went! What travel art supplies do you wish you had brought with you or maybe left behind?

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I am not traveling very far but when I do travel I have a few art supplies! And I have taken a couple of trips to Yosemite National Park, and Big Sur, and even Lake Tahoe it was beautiful with so much to paint! I have a few travel watercolor sets! And I have gotten good at scouting out a spot with natural beauty as well as shade!

Hi Abbi – oh that is wonderful that you have taken your art supplies with you to some of those beautiful places! Watercolor sets are the best for traveling as they don’t require many materials. I have found that painting in different places does make you better at being able to scout good painting locations – and its wonderful when shade accompanies a good painting view 😉

Hi Elizabeth! I have been Plein Aire painting for years. Since I paint locally one of the best aids is my garden wagon. It collapses and stays in the car trunk ready to load up and head into nature filled up with all the painting supplies mentioned. It is better than using a backpack!

Hi Sandy! Oh that is a really good tip. What a great setup to be able to collapse it and keep it in your car. I completely agree – Carrying everything in a backpack can be quite exhausting as once you reach your destination you are a bit too tired to paint! 😉

Make An On-The-Go Art Kit for Travel

By the time this post goes up, I’ll be on vacation in Canada. As I was preparing to pack (and thinking about what to write in advance for this blog), I decided that I would share about my travel art kit.

If you’re a creative therapist, you hopefully make some time for your own art-making in your life. So, you may have occasion to be packing some traveling art supplies, either to bring on a trip or to carry around in your bag to use when you have free time. (If you’re not making art, you should make time for it! Art-making is excellent self-care. Did you see the latest research from Drexel that showed that art-making reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol, regardless of your skill level?)

Unfortunately, I never do as much art as I hope to on vacations, but I always like to bring some art supplies with me. And my son is getting more and more interested in drawing and painting, especially when he sees me doing it, so I thought that some art supplies might help with toddler boredom on the airplane.

Thinking about a traveling art kit was also making me think about my past time spent as a “traveling” art therapist. Most of the time, art therapy is done in the therapist’s office, where we ideally have lots of awesome supplies for our clients to use. But I have also had jobs where I had to travel where the client is, doing both home-based therapy and school visit therapy. I didn’t want to stop doing art therapy, so I put together an on-the-go art therapy box. Although lots of different media and supplies are great, art therapy really only requires the therapist, the client, a single art medium, and a surface to create on.

Travel Art Kit | Creativity in Therapy | Carolyn Mehlomakulu

So, here’s what has ended up in my traveling art kits…

My current travel kit for vacation is minimal and small because it needs to fit easily in my carry-on bag, along with all the other things that a traveling toddler will need. This is the type of art kit that would be easy to throw into a large purse. Everything would fit into a pencil bag, but I put mine into a clear zipper pouch that I had.

Small Journal or Sketchpad*
High-Polymer Eraser
Black Micron Pen
Travel Watercolor Set (mine is Winsor & Newton)
Full sized Watercolor Brush
Mini Colored Pencils (I have Xonex Micro Colored Pencils )
Markers (For the adult version, I would bring my Tombow Dual Brush ones, but for my kid-friendly version, I got Crayola Washable PipSqueaks )
Baby wipes for clean-up

* I have a small journal for myself and made my son a small journal from a recycled file folder and scrap paper. Cut the folder in half and fold for the cover. Fold paper in half and staple down the center crease. Use tape along the front page and the back page to secure to the cover.

Travel Art Kit & Journal | Creativity in Therapy | Carolyn Mehlomakulu

My Travel Art Therapy Kit

Plastic storage box to hold everything (mine is from Target). You can also use a file storage box, messenger bag/satchel, etc. I like the box because it doubles as a surface to draw on, so if you’re using some kind of bag, make sure to include a clipboard.
Layer of collage images
Drawing paper
Colored Pencils
Pencil and sharpener (or mechanical pencils)

Your on-the-go art therapy kit can be as elaborate or simple as you want. You could also add…

Oil or chalk pastels
Construction paper or other colored paper
Watercolors and brushes
Watercolor pencils or crayons
Water brush
Modeling clay
Wipes for clean-up

* Be mindful of your therapy setting when choosing supplies for community-based services; you don’t want to bring messy materials if the client won’t really be able to use them.

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Carolyn Mehlomakulu is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Art Therapist in Austin, Texas who works with children, teens, and families. For more information about individual therapy, adolescent and child counseling, family therapy, teen group therapy, and art therapy services, please visit: www.therapywithcarolyn.com .

This blog is not intended to diagnose or treat any mental health conditions. All directives, interventions, and ideas should be used by qualified individuals within the appropriate bounds of their education, training, and scope of practice. Information presented in this blog does not replace professional training in mental health, psychotherapy, counseling, art therapy, or play therapy . Although anyone can have a healing experience with art, art therapy requires the direction of a trained art therapist.

This blog includes affiliate links (see full disclosure here ). If you’d like to help support the blog without any extra cost to you, please click through on Amazon links and shop as you normally would. Your support is greatly appreciated!

About Carolyn Mehlomakulu

Carolyn Mehlomakulu, LMFT-S, ATR-BC is an art therapist in Austin, Texas who works with children, teens, and families. Carolyn also provides art therapy supervision and clinical supervision for LMFT-Associates. For more information about individual therapy, teen and child counseling, family therapy, teen group therapy, and art therapy services, please visit: www.therapywithcarolyn.com. In addition to blogging and working with clients, Carolyn enjoys making her own art, reading, running, enjoying nature, and spending time with her son and husband.

June 27, 2016 at 11:43 pm

Yes..I have been using one for over 25. Years…could not travel without it. I thought your was we'll written. I also have more space in mine now that I brought a rolling cart type. So I add things like balloons for making stress balls..and cut out paper shapes; some r for making genograms..etc..

July 6, 2016 at 1:52 pm

Thanks for sharing about your travel art kit. I love the idea of bringing a few balloons and play dough for making stress balls with clients.

July 6, 2016 at 9:55 pm

I am thrilled to have experienced your blog!. I too am a traveling art therapist. I have a travel bag of art supplies for adults and children. I do not pack clay but plasticine. I feel like it is my magic carpet bag filled with art supplies that thrills me every time I unpack the bag. I always have to have a traveling art supply bag. For my upcoming trip I must pack lightly which means a journal and pens and markers. Thanks so much for sharing.

August 10, 2017 at 11:33 pm

*i recently took a small box of oil pastels and cut paper on a cruise. I did a two pieces on time out before dinner several nights. I even processed a Holocaust Memorial that I visited. I kept getting better results by practicing regularly. Lol. Then I decided to use them on the flight home (5.5 hrs), so I packed them in my ‘purse’. I got stuck in security because they were thought to be fire crackers via xray. They had to go through my bag, kept dusting for gun powder… and finally let me go with art materials in hand. A fun art story for me.

August 19, 2017 at 2:04 pm

Thanks for sharing that story! I would have never thought that oil pastels would look suspicious.

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