Attributes of plein air easels

It's the time of the season when artists go outside to paint.  If this is your first year of plein air painting, you might want to acquire a good easel. So here are attributes for picking an easel for your needs:

• Weight:  seek out portability and super light weight. This means having an easel that is less then a few pounds. Aluminum easels tend to be lighter.
• Painting surface:  this area must be tiltable to various degrees (from flat to vertical). Some easels can hold various size surfaces, while other only hold up to 1/4 sheets. Consider what your needs are including robustness since with some easels, the angle of the surface changes with light pressure.
• Palette shelf:  it's practical to have a shelf to put your palette
• Misc. add-ons to consider:  here are some features that you might find on some easels:   brush holder, water pail hook, umbrellas, paint box
• Ease of set up and stability: consider how sturdy are the legs, is the surface stable,
• Height: it's useful to be able to adjusts the painting surface to different heights for sitting and standing

Today's artist find is Armand Carbrera:

Have a great week

Danielle