Even knowing there wouldn’t be much time for sitting still, I decided to bring my paints on the flight to New York where I went to visit my sister for the night. I’d have time on the plane I thought. I didn’t want to part from my art practice.

Of any trip I’ve ever taken, this is the lightest I was able to pack. No books or computer. One outfit. Phone charger. Toothbrush. Paints.

At first I was packing a big bag but ended up switching it out for a smaller one when I realized how little I actually wanted to bring.

The initial flight was from my hometown of Grand Rapids to Chicago.

I got to check out the new wing of the airport- complete with a wonderful and huge floor piece designed by Kim Nguyen. This is just a sliver of it but I loved the element of the heart on the hand (representing our geographic location on the Michigan map).

I got to painting as soon as we hit altitude.

The middle line is ink from a Micron pen.

There was no plan going into this.

It’s one of those paintings where I just let my hand decide.

This paint set by Sennelier is one Maria gave me. I have such a great friend that has supported my art from the day we met. I fell in love with her work as soon as I saw it because it is extremely detailed like mine, and we instantly bonded over our love for the intricate. @mimendi_art

From Midway we landed at LaGuardia, just before dinner, where we’d find ourselves again the following day after lunch. We had less than 24 hours.

In the past two days I flew on 4 planes and painted on 3 of them.

I would’ve painted on all the flights but by the last one I had already filled my page. Everything about this experience was brand new and unrepeatable.

Each time the person sitting ahead of me moved forward or backward I could feel it and would lift my hands from the sketchbook as to not make a smudge. Whenever we were getting ready to land we were asked to put the seat-back trays up and that would cut short my time to finish a layer, so I’d transition to working in my lap and holding the book open until it dried.

I used ice cubes to wet my palette and ‘rinse’ my brush at one point.

So I’m not super proud of the end result but for me, this was all about the process. I challenged myself to work in all different conditions than I’m used to. A different brush, different paints, different paper, & different spaces.

I will most definitely try this again if given the opportunity. Maybe I can get a sketchbook just for travelling, since the pages in this one are nearly full.