Your set up for plein air

Thanks Kimberly, I'll check them out. Judy

Here's the other pochade box maker

http://allaprimapochade.com/yellowstone_lite/yellowstone_lite.html

Hi Janet;

I use an Open Box M pochade box (www.openboxm.com) with a Manfrotto tripod with a ball head. I also use that tripod with my cameras for taking pictures of my paintings. I leave one tripod attachment accessory on the box all the time. I have another in the camera bag. The attachment has a quick release, so its very easy to use with both the box and cameras. I much prefer the pochade box to a french easel. It's lighter and easier to set up. The tip about the rock bag is right on. Here in windy Wyoming you don't leave home without it! Most days this precludes using an umbrella for shade.

Jim wrote:

The tip about the rock bag is right on. Here in windy Wyoming you don't leave home without it! Most days this precludes using an umbrella for shade.

My husband asked me what I was going to do about windy days, it can really blow here in Iowa as well, and I told him to throw in a couple of bungee cords and I'll attach the tripod to my field box, it weighs about 20 pounds fully loaded. Again I don't ever paint far from my vehicle so having a field box that's this large isn't much of a problem for me, although if it were in a backpack format I'd like it much better

Jim wrote:

I use an Open Box M pochade box (www.openboxm.com) with a Manfrotto tripod with a ball head..

I'm gonna have to order their tripod mount for the boxes! From the looks of it it'll work very nicely with my panel holder and the plus side is it'll work with a palm box as well, something else I''m planning on having hubby make me

Kimberly

Hi Jim! Thank you for the tip! The Open Box appear to be very nice and I will go with that option or something similar. I never thought about the fact that it would be lighter and easier to set up so that would be really important to me.

Kimberly, Thank you for sharing your additional insights! Many things to consider which I wouldn't have thought of.

Here's some pics of my set up now that it's finished! I have to say I'm LOVING this a lot!!!





John designed it so that my masterson's stay wet palette fits inside and just perfectly!

Janet wrote:

Hi Jim! Thank you for the tip! The Open Box appear to be very nice and I will go with that option or something similar. I never thought about the fact that it would be lighter and easier to set up so that would be really important to me.

Kimberly, Thank you for sharing your additional insights! Many things to consider which I wouldn't have thought of.

Your welcome my box was designed to hold my masterson's stay wet palette, of which I own two and am working on getting a third one soon for my gouache, etc. I didn't want to use a piece of plexi or whatever to put my oils on cause quite frankly I'm forgetful and I'm doing good to remember that I have paint in my stay wet palette let alone inside the pochade box as well.

Kimberly

Kimberly, That looks like a great set up. I use the Masterson Stay Wet palette as well and I really like your idea of using it inside your pochade box. I don't like using a glass palette because it does seem really difficult to clean.

I have a question about the stay wet. I use one for acrylics with the wet sponge in the bottom. Do you use the wet sponge also when using it for the WS oils?

Judy

I like the way your board is held in place without clamps covering the top and bottom of it. I always have to touch up those spots when I get home and get it off my easel

judyfilarecki wrote:

I have a question about the stay wet. I use one for acrylics with the wet sponge in the bottom. Do you use the wet sponge also when using it for the WS oils?

Judy

My palette doesn't use a sponge it's the one with the lid that has the gasket system. HTH. You can put the sponge in the palette but I don't like it.

Kimberly

Callie wrote:

I like the way your board is held in place without clamps covering the top and bottom of it. I always have to touch up those spots when I get home and get it off my easel

Tht was a major complaint of mine as well.

You all are going to laugh at me, but as I was reading about Kimberly's husband's project, I remembered I had a tripod that I had to make a pivot head for because the original one had broken. I made the connection with wood and slipped it onto the vertical tube of the tripod.
That worked so well and is easily removable, so I decided to do something similar with a piece of 1/2-inch baltic birch plywood I had. It worked like a charm, and I just use my favorite table top easel on it and I can move that back and forth or side to side as I want.
The plywood is 20 1/2-inches wide by 23-inches deep (that just happened to be the size of the piece that was laying around doing nothing in my workshop). It is good and sturdy, and I can vouch for that. Mozart, my 12 pound cat, figured it was the newest high place he could jump on, and it didn't budge an inch.

Tomorrow I'm off to a quilt show in a town along one of the rivers here in the Adirondacks. IF the sun is shining ???? I'll give some plein air a try.

Judy

Instead of buying another quick disconnect head John made mine out of cherry to mount to the Panel Board Holder. Actually he made me three of them!

Great set up there Judy!

Btw if you get the chance check out the latest issue of Artist's Magazine it has a very nice article on pochade boxes and Plein Air painting gear.

Kimberly

Judy, very clever!

Well, it didn't rain so I did my first plein air session with my new tripod set up. It worked like a charm. Here's the scene and here is the set up. I used the open acrylics since it was my first time and they were easier to work with. I did get a second picture of the canoe at a better angle and plan to add that to the painting here at home. I'll post the picture on Mixable mix up now and when it is completed.
I really enjoyed the beautiful outdoors. Judy

Wow, Judy! That looks like it works a lot better than my old french easel. Congratulations.

Dayle

Thanks Dayle,
The great part is that the table just slips over the tube and slopes ever so slightly naturally and you can move the table top easel however you want. When you're done. Take the easel off, lift the table off and fold up the tripod...guick and easy.
Judy

PS Happy Birthday

Neat set up, Judy - that looks like it worked really well. Great to see the pictures. All this is giving me good ideas for trying something out for myself - but mine is going to be very, very simple.

Judy: Thanks for the Happy Birthday wish!

Sophie: Yes, I'm going to have to do something very simple too. My husband is a contractor/carpenter, and we are like the cobbler's kids--there are more carpentry jobs that need to be done at our house than there are wherever he works. So, I think I'll need to do this myself.

Dayle

Great idea Judy! Simple but very versatile.

Thanks everyone. I don't know if there is anything simpler. I was just lucky I had this very stable old tripod left over from when I used to have a video production business. No if it would just stop raining, I have then ext site all picked out.
judy

Thank you for sharing -- I will have to try out some of those...I am hoping to host one this month. Thank you Janet for asking the experts, good insights.

Ok - I finally started a plein air painting and have come to appreciate all of you who can manage to finish a work in one setting. That is not easy.

Here is my set-up down by the lake. I didnt get any further with the painting.

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