If you are a new artist preparing for a trip, let me caution you that it’s easy to develop a fetish for—and waste too much time and money on—watercolor travel kits.

This year, I decided to leave my embroidery supplies at home and return to my watercolor painting roots. Chris and I sketched together in 1983, before he became an artist, and before we became a couple. So I approach the practice again with trepidation; it’s daunting painting alongside a partner who has made a daily habit of it for more than three decades. Even so, when buying supplies, I could look to him for advice.

So there we stood, yesterday, at Blick Art Materials in Union Square, a couple days before leaving, in front of a locked case, checking out the tiny Winsor & Newton pocket paint box with its slide-out mixing tray, the Raphael Watercolor Pan Travel Set, cute and round, like a woman’s pocket compact, and Sakura Koi’s unfussy, lightweight white box, and I asked myself: Tubes or pans? Half size or full?

Chris has tried many different travel kits over the years but has settled on a high quality Schmincke Horadam set, in black metal, with its trademark owl logo, its motto (Meliora cogita, “I strive for the best”), and its sober German assertions of quality.

But as a dabbler, painting on vacation for a lark, I wanted something cheap. Wanted, most of all, to spend my travel money on Fika, Swedish for “a little coffee break,” with a cinnamon roll, which is the stuff of my childhood. So I forced myself to turn away from the ingenious designs in the locked case to scan the cheaper kits hanging on the wall. I settled on the Yarka semi moist set of eight colors for about five bucks.

Chris has successfully used the Pentel Aquash water brush pen, so I bought two—one thin and pointed, one fat and square. These are great on-the go brushes; you simply unscrew the top and fill the handle of the brush with water. The water moistens the bristles when you squeeze the handle. I can fill the brush in the bathroom on a plane, or at a water fountain in Stockholm. I also picked up several Pigma Micron pens in black, blue and red ink.

Around the corner at the Moleskine store, on University Place, I picked out the smallest of three Moleskin watercolor notebooks that open horizontally and have round edges and a black elastic band. Chris got the Water Color Sketchbook from Global Art Materials, same price, same size (but fyi the elastic strap on his broke immediately).

So now I’m armed and ready, but it remains to be seen if will I spend time relaxing over Fika at places like Vetekatten, the elegant old world patisserie, or get down to painting.

Stay tuned for The Traveling Artist, part 2.