Artist Pamela Hunt Lee: The Easel

Monday, April 11, 2011

The Easel

A Necessary Tool

Work continues on this painting.

An easel is most often used to hold up a painter's canvas or large sketchbook while the artist is working. The simplest form of an artist's easel, a tripod, consists of three vertical posts joined at one end. A pivoting mechanism allows the centremost post to pivot away from the other two, forming a tripod. The two non-pivoting posts have a horizontal cross member on which the canvas is placed. An easel can be full-height, designed for standing by itself on the floor. Shorter easels can also be designed for use on a table. Easels are typically made from wood, aluminum or steel.

Canvas on the easel. Completed the flowers. Will add in the thorns next.

There are three common usages for easels:

Studio easels are meant for use in the artist's studio with limited need for the easel to be portable. Studio easels may be simple in design or very complex including winches, multiple masts and casters. I have both but use my wooden, double masted easel almost exclusively when I am working. It is like the one on the right in this photo:

Field easels are meant to be portable and for the creation of plein air work. These easels are usually mid-sized or small, have telescopic or collapsible legs and are based on the tripod design.
Display easels are meant for the display of finished works. These easels tend to be very simple in design with less concern for the stability needed by a working artist and can vary in size and sturdiness depending upon the weight and size of the object to be placed on them.
Mini easels are similar in design to display easels but scaled down to accommodate smaller paintings such as my canvas boards like this Star Fruit Painting: