Jaspreet Singh is a plein air painter in a part of the world where that’s a pretty rare thing. In fact, it’s such an unusual activity in the Punjab state in India, he couldn’t find a pochade box anywhere. But, being an artist, that wasn’t much of a problem….
He made one. Singh looked at some images online and drew a rough layout for his homemade pochade box, then he enlisted the help of his grandfather, a gifted carpenter. “I tried to find a box online, but they were so expensive when you added the shipping charges, so I decided to build my own,” says Singh. The final product is 12″-x-12″ and weighs about 7 pounds.
Singh couldn’t find a suitable pochade box in the state of Punjab, where he lived. So he built one.
“My first plein air easel was a Jullian easel given to me by Gregory Little,” explains Singh. “It’s a wonderful easel, but I mostly travel on motorbike, so it’s very difficult to carry a big Jullian easel and a wet panel carrier, and other stuff.” He looked in stores, and the closest thing he found was a watercolor rig.
The finished box
So he turned to his grandfather Gian Singh. “He is a very good carpenter,” says Jaspreet. “I explained my layout to himm and we started working on it. Finally, I have what I need. It holds a 14″ tall canvas board, and it has a small drawer to hold paintbrushes.”
The work area and the pochade box in progress
One gets the feeling that most artists would prefer to design and make their own setup.
