HARBRON Plein air

I have recently been working on a new design of the Harbron 'Miniatures' Panel Box and I am very pleased with the results. The new boxes have an improved flush-fit catch system on the lid, which gives the box a cleaner profile. I have also managed to economise on production, which allows me to bring the price down. You can find the NEW Harbron 'Miniatures' Panel Boxes here . This continues to be a handmade product, crafted by me, mainly using hand tools. They are not really a viable income stream for me to be honest, as each box is constructed over two days and take between one and two hours to complete. But I enjoy making them, and I get a kick out of serving my fellow artists, so I'll continue to make them for the time being.  Seconds on Special! In the meantime, I have some old design 'seconds' left which can be obtained for the special price of £24.99. This includes three 5 x 7 inch canvas boards and postage. I have listed them on ebay where I have deta...

Harbron easels can easily be adapted for watercolour painting. Here's how... To work with watercolour on a Harbron easel you will need an additional support in the form of an easel board. This is simply a rigid surface upon which you can mount your paper before placing into the easel as you would a panel or canvas. Here are some suggestions to make an easel board: Recycle an old canvas board. I have repurposed some old Winsor & Newton canvas boards by carefully removing the unwanted canvas, scraping away any glue residue, and lightly sanding the surface to finish. It is a ten minute job and provides a good surface that is robust enough to resist warping, and can be used time and again.  Source a hardwood drawing board When I was a young teenager, my grandparents gave me a lovely A3 portfolio with a hardwood drawing board inside. I continue to use the drawing board today, whilst the portfolio contains the lovely watercolour sketches they left behind. The board is 6mm thick and d...

Should I Get the Compact or Standard Tripod Easel? There are two tripod easel designs available from the Harbron Plein Air range. The difference between them is distinguished by the length of the body. The short body model is called the Harbron Compact Tripod Easel and the long body model is simply know as the Harbron Tripod Easel. So why wouldn't you just go for the long body model?  The Harbron Compact Tripod Easel The compact easel is my original design and the one I use most on my plein air excursions. This is mainly because I rarely work on surfaces higher than 12 inches which is the maximum height the Compact Tripod Easel can accommodate. These days I cut and prep. my own surfaces from 3mm or 6mm MDF board and they tend to be around 8 x 16 inch to 10 x 12 inch. I also like to do small studies on 5 x 7 inch. The Compact Tripod Easel accommodates all these sizes and holds the board firmly with no movement even when pressure is applied to the outer edges of the surface (with exc...

  "The ink on the printed page has been magically transformed into paint and brush marks which retain the expressive energy of the original paintings"   ★★★★★ It arrived with a great sense of occasion. A doorbell chimed, humorous banter with the delivery man, large box smothered in foreign postmarks and documentation of another country. Two hands were needed to manoeuvre its heavy weight through the house and land it on the kitchen table.  'What's that?' asked my young niece after I called her over to share the excitement of the unboxing. 'This has come all the way from America' I explained '..and features an artist I'm sure you're going to like' There followed 'oohs' and 'aahs' as a large book emerged from the box, its cover ablaze with fiery oranges, hot pinks, warm blues and mellow greens - Aspen Trail  (2015). We had arrived in Erin Hanson's world, of Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California, places of her homeland and p...

Great sky day in the middle of nowhere; and a car that won't start! This is not the place to discover your car won't start (see pic above). But after a 2 hour session painting in a very remote location in mid-Wales, this is the predicament I found myself.       In the passenger seat, my infirm 85 year old mother was sitting with her watercolours.  Up to this point, we both felt we'd had a good morning painting. Mother had even completed 3 pages of her new sketchbook. But we'd both got cold and hungry, so I finished off, packed up, hopped in, and visualised a steaming Sunday roast, and perhaps a sticky toffee pudding to follow, but oh, custard or ice cream?      I was snapped out of my daydream when I realised nothing was happening when I turned the ignition key. Just to be sure, I twisted the key several times more. The battery warning light flickered, then dimmed, then flickered and dimmed at the same time. The engine did nothing.  ...

  Spotlighting great  examples of plein air art . _______________ Poplars by the Lake (1916) by Tom Thomson (1877-1917).  Oil on board, 8.4" x 10.5" National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.  Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons _______________ The year before his mysterious death, one of Canada's greatest  landscape artists, Tom Thomson, found himself working the summer as a ranger in Algonquin Park, Canada. The area had become his muse, and he had been spending the spring, summer and autumn there, painting the seasons in all weathers, at all times of the day.  It was in this period that he painted Poplars by the Lake,  one of many  oil sketches by the artist, completed  en plein air .  It has all the hallmarks of Thomson's work. The main elements of trees, sky and water, which provided endless fascination for Thomson as subject matter. There is also the signature  b road brushstrokes, liberal applications of oil paint, and idiosyncratic palett...

There's an exhaustive range of tripods out there. Which one is best for the Harbron Tripod Easel? Let's look at how to get the tripod easel matched up correctly. Mount plate compatibility (also known as: Quick-release plate, quick-release shoe, screw plate).    The Harbron Tripod Easel has a 1/4 inch threaded hole at the base of its body to enable attachment of a tripod mount plate. Most standard tripods come with a mount plate with 1/4 inch screw. If your tripod has a different size, don't panic! Adaptors are available. TIP: Look for a tripod with a 1/4 inch mount plate. Mount plates can be bought separately and its a good idea to have a spare permanently attached to your easel, so you don't accidentally leave it still attached to your camera back at home - not that I've ever done that, ever!       TIP: Buy a spare mount plate and fix it permanently to your easel. Adjustment of tripod head To position the easel vertical, you will need to be able to swivel ...

  The Art of Plein Air Painting: An Essential Guide to Materials, Concepts, and Techniques for Painting Outdoors Author:  M. Stephen Doherty "Quality softback edition by American plein air specialist, offering a concise introduction to plein air painting for those starting out. On techniques, you'll want something a bit deeper." ★★★★☆  

  I am making good use of my compact tripod easel in the studio. I usually have at least a few paintings on the go at the same time but space is tight. T he tripod easel only requires a small footprint, so it is no trouble to set-up.  I attach my tripod shelf and place a sheet of Strathmore Palette Paper, held down with bulldog clips. I basically set it up as I would  en plein air .  In the painting (pictured here), I worked from a photo on MDF hardwood (3mm: 205mm x 400mm), primed with three coats of Winsor & Newton Acrylic White Gesso.  I applied a pinkish ground, then composed my painting using Winsor & Newton Artisan Oils, with Artisan Thinner at the blocking stage.  Between the passes, I put the easel aside so that I could press on with other work whilst the layers had time to dry.  Unlike my bulky studio easel, which is confined to one space, I can easily re-position my compact easel to chase the sunlight around the room over...

Berwyn ( Welsh ) = snowy summit Looking south over the Berwyns, mid-Wales (no snow today) Fabulous day with my plein air watercolour set-up. I clipped a Bockingford® watercolour block (size: 9 x 12 inch / 310 x 230 mm) to the easel board and found that the holes in the clips were perfect size to hold my wash brush.   Bulldog clips used on plein air set-up

"Evocative retrospective of the late Scottish landscape painter, James Morrison (1932-2020). Particularly emotive is the documented final years of the artist's life as he experienced fading eye sight and the impact on his painting. Gripping storytelling, beautiful cinematography and soundtrack, all punctuated with breathtaking examples of Morrison's work, not to mention the words from the great man himself. A must see for all art lovers!" ★★★★★

I am pleased to reveal a new addition to the Harbron Plein Air range: a panel box for storing/carrying your miniature 5 x 7 inch panels.   5 great reasons why I take this box on location:  Small canvas boards, or miniatures, are great for warming-up. Rather than jump straight into my main piece, I might do a miniature just to get my mind and ideas focused and my hands loosened up. Sometimes my miniatures will be the main piece. I might complete a run of miniatures between rain showers or when I don't have a lot of time, or when I simply want to focus on a small study. Miniatures are great to do at the end of a painting session, to use up what paint I have left on the palette, whilst making the most of any time I have left.  Miniatures are super portable. I can reduce my kit to 2 paint brushes, a limited palette of 3-4 tubes of paint, small airtight palette, my medium and a rag. Off I go! At such a small size, I can get away without an easel - I'll just hold the board...

  The Artist Sketching (1922) by John Singer Sargent Oil on canvas, plein air The expression 'plein air' comes from the french phrase en plein air , meaning 'in the open air' and is popularly used to describe painting outdoors, or a painting that has been completed on location.  "Everything that is painted directly and on the spot always has strength, a power, and a vivacity of touch one cannot recover in the studio... Three strokes of the brush in front of nature are worth more than two days of work at the easel" - Eugène Boudin Purists might only apply the term plein air  to work that was completed entirely outdoors. Others might accept a final touch-up in the studio. Either way, it is desirable to maintain the fresh, immediate brush strokes that typically characterise a good plein air painting.  

Artists sketching in the White Mountains (1868) by Winslow Homer Oil on panel You might hear a number of pronunciations: 'plan-air', 'ple-ner' or 'playn-air', the latter being the most common anglicised form. However, if you want to be faithful to French authenticity, say 'ple-ner'