Traveling Light: How to Find the Best Portable Art Easel

Shares 9

What’s the Best Portable Art Easel to Take Your Painting with You?

Finding the best portable art easel to carry along with you should be a piece of cake! If you love painting, you already know that you’ve got to have quite a lot of tools and supplies at hand to keep up with; make sure you’ve got the kind of easel that can go anywhere you need to that is not only durable and strong but can collapse down on a dime!

Let’s look at the different kinds, why and how you can benefit from them, and some of the best styles available!
[toc]

US Art Supply Lightweight Floor and Table Easel with Bag Art Alternatives Adjustable Desk Box Easel, Natural US Art Supply Portable Wood Travel A-Frame Easel US Art Supply Small Tabletop Studio H-Frame Easel

Why Consider a Portable or Tabletop Artist Easel?

Do you love painting but certain health issues make it difficult to stand for long periods of time? If so, there are a number of good portable art easels that will allow you to be comfortably seated while working. One of my art instructors had back trouble and preferred to work sitting. Naturally a tripod-shaped small artist easel was the first kind that I learned the ropes on.

If you travel a good bit, the case of having a smaller or lighter easel with carry-on or carry-along functionality is a good idea. Taking something compact, foldable or lightweight like this with you from place to place is ideal if you are doing something like, say, public demos-makes the task that much easier 🙂

Then there is the ease of getting to work in the great outdoors-why not take it with you? Especially if your specialty is outdoor landscape scenes…sometimes you’d like to be right there in your own surroundings on a nice day with great weather…Portable art easels like those I’m about to discuss here will let you do just that!

The 3 Best Types of Portable Art Easels

Basic Tripod: This is a short A-frame version of the classic floor length, the back piece is connected to the A-frame by a chain, they often flatten down when not in use. Sometimes they are full-length, like the image above but a lot of them look just like this one to the left.

The best quality models are made from wood. I used to have an aluminum version of this one that I could collapse at the back and at the mid-point at the resting piece when I put it away for storage. Aluminums are lighter, but not as sturdy.

H-Frame Layout: Sometimes the tripod design above is available in the “H” frame which is even better. If you remember from my previous post on large, professional-grade easels , you know why I love the H-frame. It’s the most supportive and strongest!
Folding “suitcase” design: These have a compartment to hold various supplies and open up to reveal the built-in easel frame to rest your canvas. They are hinged at the compartment/easel apex and best suited to smaller canvases (20″ and below) Constructed from wood (sometimes coming in an unfinished variation) these are the best type for the artist with a busy life going places.

Small Artist Easel Spotlight

I found this little cutie on Amazon and it pretty much replaced the clunky old aluminum one I’ve had for a long time after I saw this unique compact design. This small artist easel is actually made of two standalone parts with notches sized for canvases. The bottoms are reinforced with non-skid rubber padding so they’ll stay put.

The notches will support standard three-fourths thickness canvases only and will not support “gallery wrap” or thin canvas panels. I think this is a great little tabletop easel for painting if you’re a hobbyist…it could also be used to display your work in a pinch. They don’t get more portable than this one, that’s for sure! Only thing I didn’t like was the strange chemical smell; I had to let it sit out for a week before the weird odor dissipated.

Conclusion

Even if you already have a great studio easel that you’re proud of, it’s great to have a backup to take with you. One day you may find your art taking you places and so it pays to get the best portable art easel that will go with you everywhere you need it to!