'French box easel' - can it really work for painting out and about?

I recently found a French Easel a lot like this one at a thrift shop.  So of course, it came home and I've been slowly repairing it with the idea that I can paint outside this summer.



The easel has problems like how much it loves to embed splinters into my hand.  So if I like it, I might upgrade to the MEEDEN one next year.  

But will I like it?  That's the big question.  

Here's from the wiki for en plein air and  The French Box Easel

It was during the mid-19th century that the 'box easel', typically known as the 'French box easel' or 'field easel', was invented. It is uncertain who developed it, but these highly portable easels with telescopic legs and built-in paint box and palette made it easier to go into the forest and up the hillsides.[14] Still made today, they remain a popular choice (even for home use) since they fold up to the size of a brief case and thus are easy to store.[15]

The Pochade Box is a compact box that allows the artist to keep all their supplies and palette within the box and have the work on the inside of the lid. Some designs allow for a larger canvas which can be held by clamps built into the lid. There are designs which can also hold a few wet painting canvases or panels within the lid.[16]  

This easel is one of the three technologies that revolutionized painting along with the paint tube and metal brush ferrule.  With these three things  we got Impressionism and the chance for even a regular person like me to paint easily and affordably on location.

The thing is, this box is heavy.  

It also has a huge amount of storage space.  

Boils first law of storage space is that the contents will always expand to fit the space no matter how much you got rid of while on vacation, the remaining stuff will never fit in the suitcase without three people standing on it to compress it all down... wait, what was I talking about?  

Oh yes, the "studio in a box" as many people call this easel.  You can fit everything you could ever need in here.  And maybe that's not so good as the easel itself weighs at least 15 lbs empty.  The legs are like little toothpicks and I can't help but wonder how it can hold up the weight of the easel, level on all the paints and stuff.


And yet... with my thrifted French Box, I find it looks more awkward to hold than it is.  The legs are stronger than they look.  I need to get a palette for inside mine before I can load it up and test it out.  I plan to take it out to the garden a few times to get used to it and find a dignified way of setting it up and taking it down.  I'm also trying to imagine any modifications I want to make to it before taking it away from home.  I think I would use it for both oils and watercolour as it can fold flat like a table or upright for oil painting.  


Anyone out there ever tried a French Easel before?  How did you like it?  What was the best part of using one?  What was the worst?  

Yup - heavy. An inexpensive, lightweight airport luggage dolly might help. It would also make it easier to tote along other necessary conveniences (like a folding so our chair, for you to rest on, a thermos, even a picnic basket). Splinters can be averted with a bit of sanding, and some beeswax.

Frankly, I'm kinda wistful, because I've been searching for one, too. Congratulations on your awesome find!!

Thermos is a must.  Thanks for the reminder.

I sanded and oiled and glued down the worst of the spinters.  I think it's a poor choice of wood.  I don't think it's willing to go smooth.  I glue down or cut out one splinter, two more appear on areas I already worked.  

I was thinking of some sort of varnish on the wood, but I've already oiled it several times.  Also, varnish stinkss.

It's good for trying out.  

I've half convinced myself I love it and it will make my life so much beter.  And half convinced, I will hate it once I start using it. I'm curious how I will feel after a summer using it.

I'm going to set my own search aside, while I watch how it goes, for you. I think. I dunno - if I come across a great deal like you did, I might still jump!

I'm surprised how many art boxes and easels come up for sale in thrift shops here given we don't have a major art school in this town.

But it's important to know the price as sometimes they are good like mine (about $35 after reapirs) and sometimes they are way more than the same brand new on amazon.

Most of them have dried ick inside from what looks like spilled oil that didn't get noticed.  It's a good warning to be careful what I pack and check it when I get home.

I started out looking at new ones. DEFINITELY not in my budget (though I did buy one, for my daughter, for her birthday, one year - it's buying one *for me* that makes it feel too pricey, lol). My son (not knowing I'd bought her one), also bought her one for Christmas, that same year, so maybe I could borrow one from her, for a while... Not sure why I never thought to ask her. 🙄

That's a great idea!  

I like the low commitment of borrowing one.  

I couldn't agree, more. Next best thing to 'free', really.

Check out Tony Foster’s set up. A British plein air painter who hikes into the wilderness with supplies and home made easel. You can get an idea of his supplies from this short interview. He doesn’t describe it but you can see the easel is a board with binder clips. Everything fits in a backpack.  His paintings, story and supplies are on view in a permanent museum  “The Foster” in the California South Bay. https://www.tony-foster.co.uk/about-the-artist/method/

There are a lot of great minimalist easels out there. I imagine I'll endep up in that direction....maybe.  I hope to start a thread exploring them soon (or feel free to).   here's a thread about minimalist sketching and painting kits

The French box is the one I have.  It's also so different than other easels on the go, pochade boxes, and other mobile painting set up, that I'm curious if it's even usable.

The French box easel seems to have the goal of bringing as much of the studio outside as humanly possible.   What an exciting and scary concept.

The more I look at the history of the french easel, the more it looks designed to work with oil paints.  

The amount of stuff it can cary is simply not needed with water based mediums like gouache or watercolour. That stuff can easily fit in a pocket or small handbag.

On the french easel, we can turn the canvas towards the easel and it protects the wet paint from getting smudged on the way home.  Not really a problem most mediums need a solution for.

I saw one in the wild.

There was someone with a french easel at a drawing session lately.  I was curious how he opened and closed it.  He seemed to have a familiarity that suggests he uses it a lot.

To open, he put it upside-down so the part where the painting goes was on the ground, then extended the legs before lifting it and turning it right way up.

I was wondering if the stuff would shuffle around when it was upside-down,  but when he opened it, the box was empty.  He had all the supplies in two other bags.  Kind of disappointed to see it wasn't all in one.  But, he didn't have a palette to hold the stuff in place when the box is closed, so that might be why the extra bags.

He was using it for drawing, than later, watercolours.  

I've been painting with one of these for years. I also have a knockoff model, and have to supplement its inability to hold itself together when fully collapsed with 2 strategic bungees. I think about the shiny, pro model, but oh well, this one was cheap (or free?) and it works fine. I have used it repeatedly at a county fair paintout competition and took a blue in watercolor 3 times. All due to the easel, I'm sure! 😄

My experience is that wind tips the easel over.

Plus it’s just too much to carry everywhere - too big and awkward, too heavy…

I have better luck using a Windsor and Newton travel box of watercolors and paper that has all 4 sides fastened down by glue (a watercolor tablet). A sketchbook works ok with clips.

I've been trying to imagine the minimum amount of supplies I would need for oil painting out and about

- 10 tubes of paint. I could narrow that down a bit as I get used to which colours are in the natural world here, but to start, that would be the most comfortable. Two yellows, two reds, two blues, black, white, burnt umber and  yellow ochre.  Comes to just under three pounds.
- a tube of solvent free gel or calcite medium (going to try both and see which gives me the best results.
- a small tin of linseed oil for brush cleaning (about a tablespoon).
- a handful of rags to clean brushes
- a small ziplock bag to store the oily rags in until I can get home to dispose of them properly.
- a towel to clean my hands after painting
- half a dozen brushes
- canvas
- palette knife
- thermos of tea
- mug for drinking tea
- small cloth for cleaning when I spill tea on me
- hat (protect myself from sun and to make it easier to see colours properly.
- candies
- palette
- something to store my palette in so I don't waste paint
- easel strong enough to hold the canvas for oil painting.  
- something to store the canvas in on the way home so it don't get smudged
- something to keep it all in

Looks like the french easel would fill those last five and carry most of the rest.  I need to field test it as I'm not sure if it can carry the tea.  But tea is non negatable.  

Anything I forgot to add to the list?


To give an idea off where I'm at, right now I'm using an easle like this one with the fold up tripod and single bar to hold the canvas/paper.



I hate it.

I have such a massive hate for it.  Let me tell you why.

It is flimsy.  The legs spread apart, especially the back one, as I paint.  The canvas/paper sits too low so I have to slouch to draw on it.  And the bar that goes up to hold the canvas/paper is just one single bar.  It's fine if I want to paint in the middle of the canvas, but even slight pressure towards the edges, and my other hand has to hold on tight to stop it flying off the easel.  And even indoors, it will fall over if someone so much as looks at it.  I'm not sure I would want to use it outside.  

Plein Aire Painting Resources
from Patricia Kellner (Patty K), inventor of BestBrella and Garage Palette

It’s unfortunate that Patricia Kellner has retired and is no longer making and selling the fantastic wind, UV and glare blocking umbrella (called Best Brella) with its truly sturdy and **fantastic**, **completely adjustable**, **strong** clamp. It’s THE BEST clamp ever.

If you can find this clamp and umbrella somewhere used, it would be a serious help in so many ways.

She also invented a very simple and effective “unused paint pot” storage system called Palette Garage.
One can probably put “two and two together” and make one with the resources I have listed here from her website, Pinterest, and YouTube postings.

She also manufactured and recommended special gloves for avoiding toxicity and keeping clean, that one could probably find similar elsewhere.
Info on this can all be read on her blog.

Patricia’s blog, where many great tips and tips for Plein Aire Painting and Drawing are located:
https://www.greatarttools.com/author/admin/

Gear
https://www.pinterest.com/pakellner/plein-air-gear/

Demo of BestBrella


Demo of Garage Palette



Constituents of Palette Garage (For DIY)

There are 3 sizes of the Palette Garage: 12”, 14”, 16”, all are on same page and photos are there too (they didn’t show up here for some reason):

https://www.greatarttools.com/shop/palette-garage/16-palette-garage-for-oil-paints-28/

https://www.greatarttools.com/shop/palette-garage/12-palette-garage-for-oil-paints/


12 Inch Palette Garage

SKU: 22
Category: Palette Garage
Description
* Paint tray measures 11.5″ —  the average inside dimension of a 12″ pochade box
* The tube measures 12.25″ to easily house the paint tray
* Clove oil wicks embedded in end caps
* The 15 ml bottle of clove leaf oil is enough to last you for years of palette garage use.
* Two 1″ spring clips are included
* Two sets of Velcro tabs are  included to help secure the paint tray if can’t position the clips to do the job


Description
* Paint tray measures 15.5″ —  the average inside dimension of a 16″ pochade box
* The tube measures 16.25″ to easily house the paint tray
* Clove oil wicks embedded in end caps
* The 15 ml bottle of clove leaf oil is enough to last you for years of palette garage use
* Two 1″ spring clips are included
* Two sets of Velcro tabs are  included to help secure the paint tray if can’t position the clips to do the job

Sorry, forgot to mention:
The BestBrella, easel, attachments and tool storage systems apply to every artist’s Plein Air repertoire.

But the above stuff on Palette Garage is for Oil paining and pastel, not Acrylic.
Acrylic will have a whole different paint saving system.

Oh and here’s a Powerpoint I found on her old website, that applies to painting tools in general

https://www.greatarttools.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Pastel-Tips-and-Tools-Presentation.pdf

tuffy monteverdi wrote:Oh and here’s a Powerpoint I found on her old website, that applies to painting tools in general

https://www.greatarttools.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Pastel-Tips-and-Tools-Presentation.pdf

That's a great document.  And it brings up something I've been wondering about.

I've been wondering what's the difference between these different box easels like the Russian one shown in the PDF or the Italian one which looks identical to the French one.  

I've also seen some of the makers mention that they have a license from the French government to use the French Box easel design and it's protected under some sort of UNESCO designation.  Something about it being a technology that massively revolutionized art in France, it's of national importance.  But I can't find any first hand references to this being a thing with easels and the UN Heritage stuff.  Anyone offer some insight into this?

Repairs are done and a board cut for the palette.



I put some stuff in it, probably more than I would need for oil painting en plein air. The palette wood is really important as it holds the stuff in the drawer. I'm not sure this wood will work for an actual palette as it's extremely brittle.  So I got some linseed oil and ...

...I thought why not oil the palette on the easel?  It works as sort of a table.  And if any oil spills it can be rubbed into the easel.

This has exposed some, um... challenges already.

First is a design issue.  The legs spread large and I've stumbled on the back leg several times . It wouldn't be fun to have this where a lot of people traverse.

The second, I feel comes from the hard life this easel had before  me.  While gently (emphasis on gently, as in a lot less force than painting) rubbing the oil into the bord, the lid (easel part) slammed closed and one front leg collapsed.  Thankfully I caught it.  But I suspect the hardware is wearing out pretty bad and wont hold up to my style very long.

But, I don't know if this easel style is for me yet.

Next up, try and find two hours where I can take this to the garden and try it out.  I probably have twice as much as I need in it, and am missing something essential.  We'll see.  Just as soon as the threat of rain lets up.

I found this fun video of a woman using a french easel while painting in a rice field.  It's relaxing watching her work and interesting to see where she found the easel difficult and areas where it matches her well.



I've also been watching old episodes of landscape artist of the year (laoty) and they have a thing where 50 people from the public come out to paint.  It looks like between 10 and 15% have a french box.  Which is quite a lot considering how many different setups there are for plein air painting.

A little test today of my french box set up.



It makes a fantastic table easel.  Rest the palette on the half open drawer and we have an incredibly useful table.  

I also wanted to know if my supplies are right.  Pretty good so far.

The main colours I choose are lemon yellow, purple-leaning red, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, and white.  I was able to quickly mix most of what I need, but the greens were a bit transparent and weak.  Might add some convenience colours like yellow ochre and black as they make a nice realistic green.

The canvas size was another test.  11x14 fits nicely on this easel, but is a bit much to fill in under two hours.  The picture above is at the one hour mark and I have a lot left to block in.  To be fair, over 30 min were spent mixing colours.

As I'm working with mostly natural light, it was shocking to see how fast the light changed.  The wall went from pink to yellow in the first hour alone.  And the flowers opened so it was hard to keep track of which flower was which.

But this little field test earned the easel alot of love from me.  I think I'm ready to take it to the garden.