Plein Air :: De Boville Slough

Posted on May 10, 2009

Great weather for painting today. Warm, bright, little wind and overcast.

I headed out to De Boville Slough to find a spot to paint the water. I set up in the soon to be overgrown grass and faced my box east.

I painted for about two hours with a final result I am happy with but, in reflection, contained some errors in value. Oh well, it’s a learning process.

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Pochade Box :: Newest Toy

Posted on May 9, 2009

Since I am enjoying oil painting so much I wanted a way to be portable so I can paint ouside on vacation or on a day trip to the park.

I research pochade boxes for at least four months before deciding on the boxes produced by Alla Prima Pochade Boxes by Ben Haggett. Specifically, the ‘Yellowstone‘. His boxes are beautifully built, but best of all, highly functional. His use of magnets to keep doors closed, drawers from pulling out and as a height adjustment for the panel retention system is ingenuous. It all mounts onto a tripod for stability and ease of height adjustment.

There is storage for four 11×14, 1/8" panels, or two 11×14 panels and two 6×8 panels, or… the combinations are endless. You can see into the top of the case in the images below.

The two drawers have ample space for your paints on one side and all your other goodies on the other. And, as you can see below, there is brush storage across the front inside of the cover. I have four in the cover below, but I have had six in total at one time.

Since I have got it, I have taken it out twice so far. I have to say it has been a great experience painting outside trying to capture the light.

I’ll be taking this box with me to my Mike Svob workshop in August as well as to Ontario and the States this summer with the hopes of getting some painting in.

I would recomment this box hands down over any of the other manufacturers out there!!!

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