As promised, here’s my nocturne painting set-up. I have a few different paint box easels in which I work with depending on what medium I’m using or what size I’m painting. Pictured above is the OpenBox M pochade; which is my workhorse plein-air easel for oil painting. I’m using two XtraFlex-2 LED clip-on book lights from Mighty Bright to illuminate my palette and painting surface. Each light contains two Super LED lights in one head. So between the two clipped onto my easel they have the output of 12 “normal” LED’s! Which is more than enough light to work with.
Not knowing what to expect from the book lights I also purchased a Princeton Tec Headlamp. That was pretty much overkill but I was prepared if I needed more light. Since the headlamp tilt-adjusts it could have been helpful for my palette area. However, when pointed directly at my painting the wet paint acted like a mirror preventing me from seeing the painting.
You’ll also notice that I’m wearing a hat at night. That’s to keep the glare of the book lights out of my vision so I can see my subject even better.
I would have to say the first time out was a good experience partly due to a perfect weather scenario as well. The temperature was cool and there was a steady breeze keeping the bugs away. I was anticipating every bug in town being attracted to the book lights and sticking themselves to the face of my painting. Bugs have stuck themselves to my paintings in daylight so I’m sure it will happen while painting at night. Look out for future nocturnal paintings entitled; Moth, Mosquito and Firefly:)
