I am IN!

I got accepted to this year's "Art In The Garden" a very big to do here in Eugene put on annually by Maude Kerns Art Center.  There will be metal workers galore there but none will be doing what I will be doing.  There will be fairies and dragon flies and maybe some gates but no one will be making outdoor easels that can be used as trellis's and that will be my main effort.  I applied three weeks late, so someone likes them already and that is a hopeful sign.  The exhibit is for 3 days right after the 4th of July so I have time to make some more!  wish me luck!

Outside!

2 posts today!  I found some great old growth fir in my shop and made the bench covering with that.  It is looking bad that all of my easels are photographed with the same canvas, but it is a nice size, five feet tall and thirty inches wide.  I took this bench easel outside to take some photos and see how it works.  I love it.  It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles, the cup and brush holders nor a place for paper towels, but it is strong, steady and comfortable!  One more for my show room/studio.  It is getting crowded!

   Now what will I do?

There Are Over 700...

Easels on eBay.  From little table models to the big 'H' frame Studio Easels and lots and lots of aluminum framed, light weight tripodal ones that fold up and  come in a case.  I found two really nice Victorian models among the bunch and none that excited me.  It struck me as odd to discover these tools of artists and realize how plain they were.  I can imagine simple could be good if they were strong and well built but these were all Chinese Knock offs, all pretty much the same and nothing to be proud of.  Where did we get the notion of who could build the lightest, cheapest, flimsiest easel?  I realize that there may be times an artist might want a traveling easel but as a major piece of furniture in the studio?  There really should be more to choose from.
   When I began welding years ago I made hundreds of trellis's, different sizes and styles, shapes and purposes. I began by going to the local garden supply places and garden art nurseries to see what they had.  They all had the same stuff, as if their buyers all stopped for lunch at the same time at the same show and bought together to get the best deal.  These were import trellis's, the kind that fit into a plain cardboard box and they couldn't support themselves let alone a vigorous vine attempting to grow up their sides.  I am thinking the easel makers are the same manufacturers.  It is the same stuff built to the same standards.
   There are always flaws with prototypes but I am on a roll now.  My little studio is jam packed and my easels spread out into my garden.  My beans will learn to paint soon.  I seem to be dreaming easels, big, small, tall and, thanks to Sherry, FLAT!  Crimson Leaves tells me she paints flat and sometimes I do too.  Why couldn't I make an easel that had the proper vertical angle but could easily tip and lock into a horizontal position?

Wouldn't that be cool?  This would be easy to do for a 12 inch by 12 inch canvas but I am thinking "Artist" here, something Big, something Grand!  My latest invention in the easel world will easily hold a five feet tall painting and gently lay it flat and lock into position!
   I'll finish it soon and get it into the garden to get some better pictures but you can get the idea from these taken in my shop.  The circular steel rim will be a frame for the seat.  I will find some exotic hardwood for this.  I am getting older and the idea of sitting down while painting is becoming more attractive to me.  In its normal position the canvas is in front of the little bench which is attached to the easel, but for display the canvas can be turned 90 degrees, placing the bench to the left of the painting.
   This is not a knock down foldable comes in a package type of easel.  It would be more like shipping a motorcycle but people do that, don't they?  I don't know what the limit is, what boundary that can't be crossed.  I once on a lark took a three thousand dollar trellis to a Home Show and sold it Three Times!
   I am having fun and that is the main thing!  I can always make my studio/showroom Bigger!

The Easel

I am always trying to reinvent the wheel. I wanted an easel with everything close by so I have been reinventing. There is no market for these, I looked them up on Ebay and easels are pretty much a dime a dozen, but really they are not that good.  Unless you get a big H frame studio easel they are flimsy and well, have that made in China quality to them.  Not too inspiring for an artist who hates imports.
   This easel has a lot of attachments, one for paper towels, another for a pallet, little rings for cup holders and brushes, both vertical and horizontal while drying and even a little scabbard that will hold three pallet knives! What am I missing?

   It is my first foldable easel and the mast slips into place so it is in two pieces but it has the strength of steel, not its light weight aluminum counter part.  It is adjustable and will hold a canvas as small as 20" and as big as five feet! I have put a six foot wide canvas on it and it has no wobble at all.

   It is not always a good thing when an artist likes his work.  I kept fiddling with it and adding details and then I liked it so much I spent $75 to have it professionally powder coated.  It is a clear coat, letting you see the steel but giving it a feeling as soft as silk to the touch.

The little rosette with the brass acorn nut moves up and down and is designed to capture the top of the canvas.  It is threaded and will tighten down  to a quarter of an inch or open up to a full 2".

   I added a half dome of copper at the top of the mast for the artists signature!  Clear coat over copper has become almost a trade mark of my work.

My Studio has become like a car lot showroom of easels, from Volkswagons to BMW's. Maybe one day I will learn to paint!

Painting Station

The more I discover about painting the more I realize that there are some things I need. It was no different from the construction industry.  I needed tools and attachments, accessories,
bits and pieces and places to put them.  Organization and everything readily available.
   I don't paint in the same place each day.  I might move the easel about to catch the light, paint
inside or outside. There is always all of "the stuff" to move with me!  Paints, brushes, thinner, pallettes
and all the tools of the trade.
   I have also discovered that when I clean a brush I should leave it horizontal to dry so any liquid remaining won't drip into the ferrel and the fine fibers won't get mushed.
   So, I am inventing again!  Creating "painting stations", working places to put the tools and supplies I am using as the moment, all handy in one place.  So far I have three models and eventually wll make a "furniture grade" model.  One pretty enough to be in a living room!  I think the next one I make I will put on wheels.

 My latest model

Think strong and stable with steel but they are not heavy, maybe 20 pounds at the most.
   This one comfortably holds six vertical brushes and six horizontal, little cubicals to place tubes of paint and five
pallette areas as well as three cup holders and a bottom shelf.

 If there is not a market for these,
I like them!

It even comes with a towel bar for that handy rag!










I wonder whether anyone has ever done a show just for artists?  I might just keep making these until I get enough together for a proper presentation.  Might be a fun thing to do!

You can always visit me HERE

Assignments

...is what I give myself.  I am still in the fun stages of learning to paint and don't really know what I am doing.
I have no teacher, no mentor looking over my shoulder and guiding me along the way.  No helpful hints.
I am not really painting anything, just learning what a particular brush will do and what I am capable of doing with it.  My painting is getting heavy from the layer upon layer, thick with ideas, changes as something catches my eye and needs attention.  Nothing is deleted.  Every idea, each misstep along the way is there under layers of paint, one stroke covering another.
   I have forgotten nothing in my life.  Experience and reaction all along the way, each episode, like layers of paint are embossed onto the canvas of my brain.
   I am playing with shapes and colors and shadows, clouds that become fog, trees that lose their definition in a forest.  I think of the painting of a painter painting the painting of a painter painting a painting...of a painter painting a painting and I wonder whether I am trying to say anything?

   The process is different from welding and it is very much the same.  You stay at it until you get good at it or you abandon it altogether.  That is pretty simple and straight forward.

So far So Good

Developing a prototype is contant thinking, tinkering and adjusting.  I remember when I first developed "Stone Posts", my slate covered light posts, almost 20 years ago. I had concrete shapes all over my backyard, broken ideas, failed first steps.  I knew it was the key to getting me out of construction so I continued until I got it right.

 Artist's Pedestal

   I am liking my first easel and tested it out yesterday on a larger canvas, about 3' by 6', steel framed, of course because that is what I do.  An artist really needs a lot of space, a lot of supplies and a lot of room to work.  I needed more furniture, bigger pallette, more room for more brushes and at least three cup holders for the little yogurt containers I put turpentine in to clean my brushes and stir stuff.  So I made an artist's pedestal.  Three cup holders, room for 20 tubes of paint and holders for a dozen brushes.
And the steel top is the pallette where I mix the paint.

 Here it is, in my garden!

   The advantage of making prototypes is that I get to keep them.  I think I will continue this process at least until I can create a perfect pair of them, one a stripped down practical model with all the bells and whistles for about $200 and another, furniture quality, powder coated with embellishments in the $500 range.  Over the years I have furnished my whole house that way and on occasion created a product to sell.
   The easel itself eventually needs to have foldable adjustable legs or I could never ship it.  In the meantime it is perfect, strong and stable.  It can easily support a six foot wide canvas.
   One added benefit to all of this is that I can learn to paint at the same time!

Market Reseach/Easels

I have never used an easel until yesterday.  I paint inside my shop on my welding table or pin up my canvas on a vertical structure I also built for welding.  I never really thought much about an easel until yesterday.

   It was such a beautiful day.  The sun was out in full force but the long shadows signifying Fall were lurking as shadows are prone to do.  I wanted to paint outside!

   There is no drying time to welding.  You weld it and it is done.  I gathered up scraps from around my shop and began with a tripod, that wonderful three legged creation that is always stable.  And then I added to it.

 My first Easel

I needed places for some brushes, holders for my little yogurt containers of turpentine and linseed oil and a nice flat steel shelf I could use as a pallet for mixing paint.

   So all this gets me to thinking?  I wonder if I could make a dime from this?  Is there a market for a good, well built, sturdy easel? and what would that be?

   Or maybe companion furniture for the artist?  A one foot square pedestal with places for brushes, paint and supplies?

   There must be a million plastic things already on the market, but I am thinking something nice, well built, sturdy, inspiring.

 My Easel in front of the Trumpet Vine

HERE is more stuff I make

   So, tell me about your easel?  What do you use?  What do you like about it and what you don't?