I'll get back to posting about my road trip next week. Today, I thought I'd share something painting nerds might enjoy as I prepare for a plein air excursion this weekend. For those of you that are plein air painters, especially those of you who are too industrious for your own good, you might share some of my struggles...too many paintings, too little room, and a constant, nerve-racking game of Tetris while loading/unloading the vehicle. With all of the plein air events I attend, and the weekly deliveries I make to galleries and shows, my mid-size SUV just wasn't cutting it. Last fall, I added to the LeGrand fleet and purchased a Fort Transit Connect...basically a miniature sprinter van with two seats, air conditioning, and not much more. The "cargo area" is large, unobstructed by bulky wheel wells or moldings, and accessible by double doors in the rear or sliding doors on either side. The only thing it was missing was a storage system that allowed me to to take advantage of the height of the vehicle. So, last week, I bought some plywood and built the rack pictured above. After some light math, heavy use of the table saw and nail gun, and a few visits back to the drawing board, I built a relatively light weight (it's actually darn heavy, but as light as my engineering skills allowed), removable storage unit for frames and wet paintings. It's not pretty, but it accommodates my typical frames up to 24" x 36", keeps paintings from banging in to one another, and most importantly, allows me to find a canvas, paint a picture, frame that picture, and store the whole kit and caboodle with ease. No more moving 10 wet paintings to get to a canvas and frame that I have to return to the bottom of the stack upon finishing. And...if I plan ahead a little, I can store and transport three times as many paintings and frames as previously possible. I played around a little and discovered I can comfortably accommodate 60 frames and panels, sizes 5" x 7" - 24" x 24", with no fear of smudging any wet paint. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty excited. So if you have a Transit Connect, and need more storage for your paintings, I....won't make you one...sorry. But, I'd be happy to give you my plans. Now, to put this thing to use!
