About

Hi! I'm Alex Harbron and I am an artist with a keen interest in painting en plein air. I live in a beautiful part of mid-Wales, where the landscape inspires me to be creative. 


I like to access remote locations on foot or by bicycle, often travelling long distances carrying all my kit. Having light and compact equipment enhances the freedom to move about, opening a world of creative posibilities. I soon became obsessed with finding the most portable solutions and this led me to develop the world's lightest tripod easel, the Harbron Compact Tripod Easel. 

The Harbron Compact Tripod Easel weighs just 190g

Bouyed by enthusiastic feedback from artists, I expanded the Harbron Plein Air range to include a larger tripod easel, a tripod shelf which can be used as a palette or support, and wet panel carriers to transport your art safely from location. I handcraft all items myself and the range is constantly evolving as I learn about the needs of other plein air artists.  

Every Harbron Plein Air accessory is handmade by me.

I established Harbron Plein Air to show my range of ultra-portable easels and accessories and share my passion for creating art en plein air. I hope you enjoy your visit and please do get in touch if you have any questions.    

Would you like to be kept in the loop? 

Email me with 'subscribe' in the title at harbronpleinair@gmail.com and I'll let you know when new accessories and blog postings are updated. 


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3 Palette Ideas for the Harbron Tripod Shelf

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Here are some ideas on using the Harbron Tripod Shelf as a palette: Firstly, let me say that I don't apply paint directly to the shelf. I prefer to attach a dedicated surface to the shelf for my mixing, as it's easier to organise and manage. I use 'draftsman's' metal drawing board clips for this purpose, but there are a range of clip solutions you might have more readily to hand. For my demo, I'm using the shallowest clips I could find at 16 x 55 mm. For the last studio set-up in this article, I don't need clips.     1: Palette Paper The first solution is to use palette paper. I have been using the Strathmore Palette Paper, size 9x12in. I attach the whole pad to the shelf using drawing board clips and when I have completed my painting, I scrape off left-over paint into a pot (using it later to put a ground on some of my new surfaces) and then I can tear-off and dispose of the paper. The palette paper solution is very portable and hassle-free. It's a bit ...
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New! Tripod Easel for Stretched Canvases

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In the past week I have been crafting this tripod easel for a special commission. The artist requested an easel that will accommodate stretched canvases, which of course are a lot thicker than a canvas board. So I set about making some modifications to my original design by fashioning a thicker lower and top jaw and marrying it to a Harbron  Excalibur easel body. The finished easel works so well, I have decided to make some more to add to the Harbron Plein Air range.  The Harbron Canvas Tripod Easel features jaws that are 20mm thicker than the equivalent Excalibur easel so you can mount a stretched canvas up to 25mm thick. The jaws have an angled lip that bites the canvas tightly and holds it solid for painting. You can mount a stretched canvas or canvas board up to 15 inches in height.  The weight of the Canvas Easel comes in at 310g which is just under 100g heavier than the Excalibur  but still makes for a very light set-up. I am currently making them to order ...
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Port-Marly, White Frost (1872) by Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

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  Spotlighting great examples of plein air art ____________ Here is a painting by one of the principle founders of impressionism and the most dedicated plein air  painter of his time, Alfred Sisley (1839-1899). Let's take a mindful moment to enjoy it shall we. I say 'mindful' because whenever I view a painting by Sisley, I find myself slipping into the sort of meditative state I usually experience when out for a country stroll.  We could take the path that splits the frost-static grass. Perhaps Sisley had just walked it, labouring under the weight of his easel and paints, his weathered boots crunching upon the frozen earth. He walked a lot of miles beside rivers, did Sisley; The Oise, The Liong, The Thames, and here, The Seine. He painted the water sparkling in sunlight, brooding under pregnant clouds, and even when it had breached the bankside and crept right up to doorsteps. Here though, the water is calm, reflective. You see? we are in meditation!   Perhaps S...
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