HOME MADE POCHADE BOX
For some time now, I have wanted to paint outdoors in nature. I read about it and listen to blogs. It is a very good way to improve your perception of colour values and get more experience in setting up a painting smoothly.
After all, when you paint outdoors, you have to deal with time pressure because light conditions change quickly. Under time pressure, you make different, more intuitive decisions. And this is reflected in a freer touch and a more spontaneous, loose work. You can then put those experiences back into other work you make in the studio.
Your perception also improves because you are not staring at a photo on a screen with limited information, but looking at something that is real. Outside! With all the actual nuances and colour gradients.
We are not so aware of it but a photo taken by a device does a lot to reality and imperceptibly makes a lot of choices for us. Working with photos therefore limits your freedom of choice and interpretation of reality. You make different decisions when you are actually in front of something, instead of when you are working from a photo.
Photos are often lighter, have more (colour) contrast and less colour nuance. If you know it, often recognise work made from a photograph. And the fact that there is no time limit makes for very detailed and (often too) elaborate paintings.
I already had a French field easel. One of those you know from paintings and old photographs. Heavy and all wood. Good for large works on canvas. I preferred something more compact for small studies. A solution that I can easily put in my rucksack to remove the resistance to lugging.
I try to remove all the obstacles I encounter in my work to paint. Just so I can get going as quickly and smoothly as possible and not miss an opportunity to paint something.
Of course, you can buy a fancy industrial easel from a trendy brand for hundreds of euros. But what could be more fun than making something yourself from a 10-euro box from a marketplace.
Et voilà, after the magnets arrived and a set of hinges with resistance, some hours of tinkering and patience, I had fabricated a nice pochade box. Fits nicely on an aluminium tripod!
The steel tabs, made together with and on daddy's bending bench! : ), can slide over the magnets, thereby holding different panel sizes in place.
The palette is removable and does not have a classic hole but a leather compartment at the bottom for the thumb. This makes the palette portable and still has the full surface at the top for mixing paints.
Combined with a homemade lightweight box for storing wet panels, I am ready to try it out. Probably next weekend at the Kampina near Boxtel!
To warm up, I made a couple of paintings on it at home. One from and picture I took myself on the Kampina and another based on a beautiful work by Anton Mauve. The scene of the mountains obv a photo I took during a hike near Lenk in Switzerland. The last one is of the forest around the corner from here.
If you are interested in any of the pieces, please have a look at my website for more images to give you a better impression of the work. Prices are also listed there. Prices include a nice frame, shipping costs (EU) and 9%BTW.
Heb je zelf interesse in een kunstwerk op maat of ken je iemand die geïnteresseerd zou kunnen zijn? Deel mijn werk of neem gerust direct telefonisch contact met me op.
Lees verder over mijn werkwijze en de kwaliteit die ik nastreef, door te klikken op een van de andere blogs hieronder.
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