Plein Air Painting Equipment

In this section of the website you will find information about plein air painting equipment, how to make your own painting panels, how to resurface old painting panels, a checklist of what to take out painting with you.

We also cover artist user reviews of the most popular plein air painting easels and pochard boxes, wet canvas carriers, a place to look for and list used plein air equipment for sale, health and safety tips, art studio organization and much more.

Links to all the above areas on this website are found at the bottom of this page.

Plein Air Painting Equipment/Kit

The key to traveling you your art and plein air painting along the way, is to have a light weight painting kit that you can just grab and go.

Everything in a backpack and a few other pieces so that it's easy. No need to take the proverbial kitchen sink.

Overloading yourself with too much stuff is a sure way to kill the joy of the experience and make it less likely that you will do it again and again

So here are the essentials:

The Gear

Pochade Box (plein air lingo for a specialially made box containing your Palette, brushes, paint tubes and painting panel storage) - photo of fully loaded pochade box below.

Taken apart, here is what the components of the Pochade Box consist of: (also see photo below)

The Palette – that clips onto a sturdy photographers' tripod base.

The adjustable painting panel clasps can securely hold many different sizes of painting panels - from 5" x 7" all the way up to 12" x 16" pieces.

Tripod that attaches to The Palette is stored and carried in a carrying bag that slings over the shoulder.

Use an Ordinary Day Back Pack for the rest of your Gear.

Total weight of all you need should be no more than 15 lbs. if you plan well and keep it simple.

We recommend you do a dry run of your equipment before going outdoors to paint. It's one less thing to throw you off track on your plein air painting outing.