Good outdoor easel

[Ann Brennan]

Hi everyone,  Just back from a few days painting in the Burren Centre in Clare and realised how ill equipped I was.  the tutor had a fab easel from America made by Stolek (I think).  I have searched the web but it seems an expensive job to get to Ireland.  Does anyone know where in Ireland or Europe that I could purchase a similiar one.  There was a tripod and then the box connected to it. 

 

Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ann

[Plein Eire Administrator]

An excellent comparison chart prepared by Barry John Raybould may assist anyone choosing an upgrade:

http://www.virtualartacademy.com/equipment/pochade_boxes.html

 

and this very well illustrated comparison from 'Lines and Colours'

http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/08/17/pochade-boxes

 

...and equally good illustrated comparison from Tom McQuiggan

http://www.mcqart.com/pochade

[Louise Treacy]

I m afraid the price is the real one unfortunately!!! SOLTEK is the brand and it is about 550$ to 600$ prrrreeeeetyyyy expensive, when you consider the pochade boxes people make out of cigar boxes and a tripod from aldi or lidl costing about 40 or 50 euros in total, ask Margaret Kent about it and whether its worth it or not. 

I even balked at buying one when I was in the States as I felt I just couldn't justify spending that much on an easel , and apparently a lot of the parts disintegrate and have to be replaced at quite a high cost, so I would think twice about forking out that kind of money for something that you could probably put together yourself for a fraction of the cost , and which might be more durable.There are a load of web sites showing how to make a pochade box which is mounted on a tripod from one of the multiples at a very reasonable cost  So surf away and keep your costs down.

[deirdre shanny]

Hi Ann,

Ive just purchased a prochade box from a company called ART ESSENTIALS .COM in U.S.A.It cost 140$ without the tripod.[inc the postage] Its wonderful, light weight, compact, Check out the site, i fully recommend it.

[Tony Robinson]

If you are handy, here's a cheap solution... shown in this little video.

 

...And here's a zero cost alternative made from a cigar box - it looks a bit 'Blue Peter' because its a prototype/experiment and anyway I'm no DIY expert. But it works well and is as small and light as can be, which was the main consideration in making it.

It has a glass palette painted grey on the back in a correx board tray (the light plastic sheet election posters are printed on). The divider lifts out - its to keep the main paint reservoir separate while its being carried about. Seen here, the horizontal grips (powered by stout elastic of weapons-grade, nuns' bloomers variety! ) hold a 6" x 9" board in place.

Here a piece of flat steel (also elastic-powered) clasps a board vertically. It can hold a 14" x 10" panel horizontally or vertically.

Here you can see the elastic 'springs'.

2 hasps and a shoulder strap complete the job. I haven't fitted a base-plate to this box as its not intended for use on a camera tripod  - it needs to be on a ledge or a wall or on your knee. But I fitted a metal baseplate on my bigger plein air paintbox and it works fine on a tripod with a quick-release.

[deirdre shanny]

Thats looks the business tony.Well done.

[deirdre shanny]

Hi Ann,

Tonys prochade box seems to deliver exactly what you refer to in your email.I need to correct a mistake re price.........the total cost inc postage came to 170$ instead of 140$.

Keep painting away...........Dee.

deirdre shanny said:

Hi Ann,

Ive just purchased a prochade box from a company called ART ESSENTIALS .COM in U.S.A.It cost 140$ without the tripod.[inc the postage] Its wonderful, light weight, compact, Check out the site, i fully recommend it.

[Norah Blount]

I have been looking at easels for watercolour and hope to adapt the one I have already but I like the look of this one -

http://yevgeniawatts.com/blog/en-plein-air-pro-portable-watercolor-...

[Patrick Brennan]

Check out the Easels in these videos on youtube, Charls Reid English Watercolour Sketchbook, about 1minut &14 seconds in, looks like a board with a quick release plate fixed to it. The other is Plein-air Painting and Cats by James Gurney,he also has a handy hint for watercolour artists. These are training videos but I was looking at the types of easles used. So many choices.