Because tubes of oil paint are often the heaviest things you are going to carry into the field (in watercolors it’s your water) and because once oils dry on your palette they are useless, oil painters feel obliged to carry a minimal palette into the field. However, a palette with dabs of 40 different watercolor paints in its wells only weighs a very little bit, and the paint can be reconstituted with a spray of water from a water bottle. We use a surprisingly little amount of paint compared to oil painters. It’s interesting to note the both Sargent and Homer used pans not tube paints which are also easy to carry into the field. Because watercolor paints are so portable they were the original paints for surveyors, explorers, and tourists.
All this means that, even if you leave your tubes behind you, you can carry enough paint into the field to have the palette you really want. This is particularly so because in the field with a limited number of paints you are going to consume a lot of time and water mixing colors. This will waste time which you usually do not have, and it will waste water which is usually in short supply and the heaviest thing you are carrying.
So my answer to the question in the title would be in the negative unless for some reason you want to imitate the disadvantaged state of our fellow oil painters .
Carrying around a wet watercolor palette is best done if the palette can be kept level. Most carriers for plein air painting do not take this into account. There are some watercolor gear carriers that have a separate compartment on the bottom that allows a palette that was made wet during the painting session to be carried home flat. See here. That way, your paints don’t run all over as would be the case if your palette were kept on its end. However, my rather large folding palette always seems to fit flat on the bottom of just about every bag I carry into the field.
If your palette is the type with wells on both sides and folds, you are going to have trouble with the wells with paint that you are carrying home upside down. For what it’s worth Charles Reid puts most of his paint on the downside and just earth colors on the upside down side because, he says, the earth colors don’t run as much. I think a better idea is to get one of the many palettes that has all the paint wells on one side.
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Just started painting after a 25 year break. I stunk at first ( a few months ago) but I’m getting better fast. I discovered your Homer, and your site a month or so back. WOW, I appreciate your fascination with his work because I can totally relate. What a talent and fabulous eye he had for mood and composition. I am enthralled by his work.
Do you know how much (in today’s money) he sold his paintings for? I cannot find an answer anywhere.
Thanks
Ron