My Homemade Plein Air Easel

During the last few weeks I have not posted as many paintings as usual on this blog. I have been busy designing and constructing a plein air easel. I started plein air painting with a full size French easel and soon found it heavy and cumbersome. One of the artists I paint with had a half French easel and he agreed to trade with me when I spoke about my frustrations with the full easel. I used that half French easel for a couple of years but then found that easel too heavy. I did some research on the internet and spoke with other plein air artists and decided on the Open M Box. When I went on line to order it, it was going to cost me about $500 US. I thought this was a bit steep so I decided to make it myself. I had never made anything like this before, in fact I have never used our electric drill , hand saw or mitre board before, so it was a learning experience from the very beginning.

I started with thin plywood for the top and bottom, which Rona cut to size for me. I then bought pine trim for the edges, glued this on, then screwed them in place. My husband found locking hinges, which means that they lock in place once you place them. I secured these, then went back to Rona where I got plexi glass cut to use as my pallett. An artist I paint with suggested that I use a seven day pill dispenser for my oil paints. Using this I would not have to carry my tubes, just fill the dispenser before I left home. It works great, once I got used to it and when I get home I put the pill dispenser in the fridge.

When I was using the newly designed easel I found I needed places to put my brushes, so I drilled holes in the trim around the pallett. I needed some kind of closures to keep the box closed however most of the fasteners were too big. I ended up using window closures. I also found that the board to paint on was too low when it sat on the pallett, so I drilled two holes in the lid and the board rests on those. Carrying the wet painting was an issue as well, but I found trim from some large pieces of press board in Rona's garbage bin and I glued these on the back of the lid, to hold the wet board! 

I purchased a tripod from the camera store and that tripod had a quick release plate at the top. Then I needed somehow to connect the paint box to the tripod. Lowes sells a T nut, which is a fixture with threads in the hole, that the quick release fixture  screws into. I mounted the T nut on 4x4" piece of plywood and screwed this on the bottom of the paint box. Here is the finished "work of art"!!!!!!!

I won't  list all the errors I made. This is just some of the things I learned:

Don't try to screw in screws when the drill is in reverse

Make sure the bit fits the screw before you strip it

Make sure the drill is perpendicular to the screw.

When you saw go straight in and out.

Start a screw hole before you get the drill.

Be open to advise.....don't argue??!! (With people who make suggestions)