I left the house around 8:30am before it started to really heat up here. This is on the Pitt River dyke at the end of Harris Road in Pitt Meadows. 8×10 oil on board, 60 minutes.

I am a little embarrassed to say that I went out painting and forgot my brushes. Ooops.

Not to be deterred I decided to get some palette knife work in. I will have to make a couple adjustments when it dries, but I'll chalk this up to experience and move on. 8×10, oil on board, 40 minutes.

Above is looking south from Mary Hill Elementary School. There are many forest fires going on in BC right now and all the smoke creates great atmosphere perspective.

This morning I headed out to Mundy Park on behalf of Plein Air BC for a scheduled paint out and this is what I came home with.

I original was going to paint the lake but couldn't find an interesting crop that I liked, then I moved onto one of the timber fences in the area but as I got closer to the fence I saw a creek behind it that I thought would make a good composition. Buy Mundy Park for $200.

What a great day. Had a paint out organized by Alfonso Tejada at Panorama Park in Deep Cove. You can see pictures of the event over at the Plein Air BC blog. Buy this painting for $100.

My newest endeavour is aimed at bringing plein air artists together in BC. The site is called Plein Air BC. Please come and visit.

I was able to get out for about and hour and a half this afternoon. Nice and cloudy with some rain puddles here and there. I went back to the spot I found near Minnekada Park and it was much different to paint this time around. Everything was much more muted. Froze my fingers off too. :)

Aaaaaaah, getting out today was great. Cloudy in the morning but then the sun came out in the afternoon and really warmed everything up.

In the morning I went to Port Moody and painted the boardwalk over a marsh, but ended up forgetting the camera. :(

Next outing took me down the road to Minnekada Park. I was able to find two areas to pull over and paint a couple great scenes. Let me know what you think in the comments.

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.

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 recommend this box hands down over any of the other manufacturers out there!!!