Sunday, October 17, 2010

Take-it- easel returning!

Here is another forty minute pirate portrait done by Logan Hagege.

I am home from my two week painting trip to Provincetown with the fourteen pirates. I had a great time, learned a lot and made some new friends.

I am going to begin a new series of posts. As is often the case I am going to write about design. When I am on the road and working long hours it is hard to do tutorial posts, but as I am in my studio again I will return to that. That should start tomorrow.

Lets see what can I write that might be useful tonight. Oh, I know..................

This is Rosalee Nadeau who along with her husband and son, make the Take-it Easel. That's the quality Gloucester easel that has been copied rather ham handedly as the Beauport easel. I recommend you not buy one of those, as they are put together wrong and won't work out of the box. They can be made to work, but not unless you are familiar with the Gloucester easel. Rosealee's son, Tobin is tooling up to begin manufacturing the Take-it Easel again from a workshop in Vermont. The new easels will have a few minor improvements and will be made out of American grown maple and not compressed silt. The take it easel is better made and sturdier than the commie easel and sets up and takes down more smoothly. The new easels will probably feature a redesigned leg release mechanism that should be extra dependable.


I will keep you all posted on this. When the new easels come on line I will post a link so if you want one you can get one. They will certainly cost more than the Chi-com easel but they will work, and be indestructible. I have worked on the same one for fifteen years or so with only some minor repairs recently. I sent the easel into Rosealee and Tobin redid all of the fittings and release levers. I think the Take-it Easel is the best fix for outdoor landscape painting, unless you require a very light kit for traveling or hiking or are only interested in painting small.

11 comments:

Mary Byrom said...

Logan did a very nice sketch of you.

Philip Koch said...

I think artists get VERY into their easels, whatever type they use. It's funny as I started out on a French easel many years ago, and for the life of me, can't get myself used to the types Stape recommends, even to the point of trying one. Am I getting rigid? Yeah, I guess so.

mariandioguardi.com said...

If they truly become easy to use, I will be first in line for a Take IT Easel. Those cheapo ones make me laugh when ever a friend buys one and tries to set it up..extra parts...missing parts...different size holes for the "same" parts.

Gear might be one of those guys thing??? I really don't care what I am painting on as long as I can paint. How do other artists feel about their easels? But I bite when people try and take my painting knife out of my hand..so maybe I'm not so different.

I like this sketch, Stapleton. I think you should use it on your bolg..it's mysterious and intriguing just like what you are going to write about every day. Welcome back.

Unknown said...

the sketch is a definite improvement on Ask Stape/Ann Landers/whatever... (though we love that one too, but for totally different reasons)

I got a Take It Easel just before I left New England. I only got to use it once or twice, so am still learning how to get the thing put together.. For larger paintings, or where it is windy, it is the bomb.
For here, where I need to hike in to painting spots, I needed something more lightweight and portable.
I researched and found the Soltek easel, and I tell you, it's probably the best single piece of gear I've bought so far.
http://www.soltekarts.com/
Compare prices online and you can probably find somebody who has it on sale.

Stapleton Kearns said...

Mary:
He gave me the original too.
..............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Philip:
If you work outside in charcoal you probably wouldn't need one anyway.
.............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Marian;
I did change it to my avatar on the blog.
............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Deb;
I have a Soltek too, but I prefer the bigger and simpler Gloucester easel.
.............Stape

jeff said...

I have one of the beauport's that the good folks at Take-it easel retooled.
It worked fine right out of the box.

I will be very interested in buying one of the new ones made of oak.

In fact I can't wait...

Logan Maxwell Hagege said...

Hey Stape, Thanks for including the photo of your portrait that I painted. I would have liked to spend another couple of hours on it!

Great painting trip in Provincetown!

Unknown said...

I purchased a Beauport easel and have yet to use it. It was challenging to figure out how to set it up and hole designed for the pole which holds the paintings is not large enough so I will have to fix that. Since then I have purchased a Sol-tek and I will see how that goes. I just signed up for the Feb workshop...I can't wait!