Paintings Thoughts and Process ©Jennifer E Young
Today I have a new offering up for auction to benefit the Central Virginia Foodbank. This is another watercolor/pen and ink painting of the golden sunflowers of Tuscany:
"Golden Days" Watercolor/Pen & Ink on Arches Paper 7x10" (Image size 5x7") (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young
This is part 3 in a series of posts I'm writing about my quests for easels, plein air or otherwise. You can read the saga from the beginningor jump to another section here:Part I: On the quest for the perfect easel Part II: Guerilla Painters' Pochade Box Part IV: A pochade box for travel
Easel #3: The Soltek. All hail and bow down to the mother of all plein air easels! Okay, my Soltek has had its problems, but I still love this easel. The Soltek is a portable easel that seems to be in a class by itself. The easel is both "space age" in technical design, and extremely flexible in its configuration:
The telescoping legs fold into themselves the same way they do in a camera tripod. But unlike the pochade box/tripod combo, the Soltek is all self contained, making setup lightning fast. The legs and the overall design also make this easel extremely resistant in the wind, which is probably one of the most difficult weather conditions of all for the plein air painter.
Other features I really love about the Soltek:
Like the French easel models and the bulkier pochade boxes, this easel has space underneath the plastic palette to store brushes and paint tubes, etc (but not the standard brush cleaner containers). It has a carrying strap attached to the easel, but I still find it necessary to have a backpack or bag for additional supplies and for hiking or carrying longer distances.
While this model is thinner and sleeker than the pochade box I blogged about earlier, it is about as long and nearly as wide as a full French easel (though not nearly as deep), and I have found it difficult to locate a good backpack that will accomodate this easel while still meeting the new airline carry-on restrictions. Soltek does sell its own backpack just for this easel. It works, and you can carry it on the plane, though it could stand to be a bit better designed, with additional padding for hiking, and some better thought-out storage compartments.
But for all of Soltek's largely wonderful features, I would never recommend that a beginning plein air painter invest in such a product, for the simple reason that it is far too expensive for a casual user. Even for the die-hard, I am hesitant to recommend it without reservation. Not only is it expensive, it's also like a high-tech car with a lot of fancy gizmos. It takes greater care to maintain, and by methods that can sometimes be more costly and inconvenient than going to the hardware store for a wingnut.
It is advised that you keep the easel clean and free of paint, particularly in the areas of the joints and legs. For someone who gets paint in her hair every time she paints on location, this is a real challenge. And while the telescoping legs are wonderful, they also seem to give people the most problems. Mine tended to either slip (and not remain extended) or stick (unable to easily close) after only about a year or so of moderate use. The Soltek support people suggested that this sometimes occurs when painters take the easel out onto the beach, where grains of sand get up into the legs. Only I had never taken mine to the beach or anywhere near sand.
The other issue I had was that the plastic hinges that allow the winged flaps to fold outward and remain open broke on me, also after only about a year or so. Soltek support says they now have better hinges and they did offer a couple of options. 1.) They could send me replacement hinges or 2.) I could pay $50 plus shipping to get a Soltek "tuneup" which would address both issues I was having.
Yes, you guessed it. I forked over the $50. Due to my already considerable investment, I justified the expense since I had at least a couple of rather critical things in need of repair. It was back within a couple of weeks, and has since been working fine. But for the price of this easel (which costs as much or more than some larger studio easels), I still feel these issues are not what I would have expected after 1-2 years of moderate use.
In any event, I still love it, and when working properly, it is by far the easiest in terms of setup and versatility of all the portable easels I've experienced. I will continue to use it as long as I can reasonably maintain it. So why would I ever need another plein air easel? Well, besides the need for a backup in case of another Soltek break down, I probably don't. But that didn't stop me from one more purchase. (Remember, this was before I admitted I had a problem.) I'll cover that in the next installment.
*Note: This is the second in a series of posts I am writing about artist's easels. To read the other installments, click on the following links:Part I: On the quest for the perfect easel Part III: My Soltek Easel Part IV: A pochade box for travel
Picking up on my previous post about artist easels, today I'll discuss plein air easel #2; my first pochade box. The word "pochade" comes from the French word "pocher" meaning "to sketch". Popularized in the 19th century by landscape painters such as the Impressionists, a pochade box was a small wooden sketch box (sometimes called a "thumb box") with a hinged lid that could be held in the hand, to easily take into the field for small sketches and painting studies (pochades.) Today, what we call a pochade box comes in many different sizes beyond the tiny hand-held variety.
After I developed my "wingnut aversion" the pochade box idea really appealed to me, as the modern boxes are made to attach to a camera tripod, which has telescoping legs. The box I chose was the Guerilla Painter's Pochade Box (9x12")
As you can see here, this particular pochade box has a hinged lid that holds 9x12" panels, and can readily take any panel that is 12" wide. The wood palette slides out to reveal little compartments to hold supplies. Like other pocade boxes, this one has a tripod mount to take any standard camera tripod. The tripod shown above is the Guerilla Painter's brand, but I chose a Bogen Manfrotto Jr. tripod, which I purchased for a steal on eBay. Bogen is a good brand and the "junior" Manfrotto model is sturdy while still being reasonably lightweight.
The Guerilla Painter's box is a fine pochade box that will likely last many years. It is a strudy piece of gear and will withstand frequent use. You could klunk the thing on the ground and not make a dent. The box is well constructed, and performs as described by the manufacturer. In many ways, you could do far worse than this box for the quality, and while the price has gone up since I made my purchase, the basic setup seems comparable to other painting boxes on the market.
This box is certainly more compact and practical than the stodgy El Greco, and also a bit lower in weight. But once you consider the weight of the required tripod, the weight of the basic box is about the same weight as the traditional French half box easel. However, this changes if you want more versatility. For example, at the time of my purchase, it was necessary to buy various inserts and attachments to best allow for the use of smaller 8x10" and 6x8" canvases, though the company later developed a slip in easel that allowed for a bit more versatility.
Not only are addtional accessories another thing to keep up with, but they added more overall weight to the painting setup (though my wallet soon began to feel lighter). In addition, while I find it far less awkward than the full French easel, the deep boxy shape made it a bit bulky and cumbersome for travel. The manufacturer, Judson's Art Outfitters does sell compatible backpacks, however, along with many other nifty plein air accessories suitable for any plein air painter, whether using the Guerilla Painter's pochade box or some other brand.
This is a picture of my own Guerilla Painter's Pochade box with the Bogen Manfrotto Jr. tripod. You might be able to make out the insert I'm using to accomodate my 8x10" painting. I use a bungee chord to hold my paper towels and a plastic bag for trash. Beneath the tripod there are two bags. One is a bag that actually goes to a folding portable chair that has a a shoulder strap. I confiscated it to carry my tripod. The box did not fit in any of the backpacks I owned, so I used the large canvas LLBean toteshown in the backgroundto carry my pochade box and other supplies.
The bulk of this box is largely due to the enclosed compartment designed to hold paint tubes and other supplies, which for some could actually be a useful component. But the storage compartments are an insufficient size to hold long-handled paint brushes without first sawing off a part of the handle. And the little square compartment that logically looks as if it wil be perfect to hold your paint thinner is too shallow for the standard brush washers, so you will either need to pack your brush washer separately, buy one from Judson Art Outfitter's, or find a small jar suitable to fit in the compartment once the lid is closed. (Not a big deal, but still worth noting if you've already invested in a brush washer.) And while it's moderately convenient to have paint tubes right under my palette, the way these compartments were configured seemed to add more bulk than convenience.
So while there is certainly nothing wrong with this box, I foundthat along with the bulk, it was a slight annoyance that the accessories necessary to make this box its most versatile added weight and needed to be purchased separately. I am now thinking of selling my Guerilla Painters Pochade box or justkeeping it as a backup (Update: It's off the market. I ended up gifting this to my talented niece Molly) in case something happens to.... Plein Air Easel #3. In many ways, #3 is a slice of plein air heaven. But this heaven comes with a couple of caveats, and a pretty hefty price. More on that in the next installment.
*Note: This is the second in a series of posts I am writing about artist's easels. To continue reading the other installments, click on the following links:
Part I: On the quest for the perfect easel Part III: My Soltek Easel Part IV: A pochade box for travel
I hope you fared better on your Valentines day than we did- we're dealing with that awful flu that's been making the rounds here in Richmond. But I've momentarily arisen from the dead to post a new "Art For Food" auction. How's that for dedication? 95% of the proceeds will be donated to the Central Virginia Foodbank. The title of this painting means "The Heart of Tuscany", and to me, the Val d'Orcia in Southern Tuscany was just that. I loved the way the Cypress trees punctuated the winding country roads:
"Il Cuore della Toscana" Watercolor/Pen & Ink on heavy deckled edge paper 8x11" (image size 6x8") (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young
Announcing a new "Art for Food" charity auction for the Central Virginia Foodbank (CVFB). I admit it isn't easy to put some of these works up for auction, but it's a good cause, so what the hay. I love this little Provence lavender painting and I hope you will too... and I can always use this work as a study to make a larger piece in oil. Opening bids are just $24.99 and 95% of the proceeds will be donated to the CVFB:
"Summer Garden" (Provence, France) Watercolor/pen & ink on Arches heavy watercolor paper, 8x10" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young
Art gallery of European and American landscape and still life oil paintings by Virginia artist Jennifer E. Young. Jennifer's plein air and studio paintings celebrate her love of color and the natural world. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally.
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