When it was my birthday in August my darling husband enquired a few weeks beforehand as to what I would like as a present from him.
I smiled and said “That’s easy!” and when he asked with some trepidation “How easy?????” I laughed and said that I had known as soon as we moved to this lovely house in Kent that as soon as my studio was in some semblance of order that I would want a new easel, a professional one, a studio one. I had always wanted one, and now I could have one!
Now there is nothing wrong with the metal easel I have been using for years, other than its a tripod one and that means its not as solidly stable as a four footed one, and also I wanted to see if they had one that did a particular thing that not all easels do.. and when I looked on “Great Art’s” website, they did have exactly what I was looking for, one that would hold large pieces of artwork, and it was duly ordered and arrived a few exciting days later on my doorstep.
I knew that it would have to be put together, but how difficult was that going to be? I’m reasonably intelligent, and capable of putting some pieces of wood together…
And diligently took all the pieces out of the box, and read the instructions, and counted all the metal sprockety things that needed to be added to fix it,
Armed with a mug of tea and the radio on, I started…
First couple of pieces slide together so, and these bits are attached to those bits, and yes, it does look like the drawing in the instructions, and then this bit goes next, here, with that bit, there, and yep, doublechecking, that all looks fine, and then we get to that bit there, and this bit here, and yes, er, no, er, hangonabit, which bit is that, and why doesn’t it fit there, and how can it be upside down when I’ve checked it all over so carefully… oh, fuckit, its wrong isn’t it… get the expert second opinion… and I called my husband, who came and had a look and confirmed what I had suspected, I’d made a mistake with the first four pieces, but, I realised that it didn’t all have to be taken apart and started again, we could just undo four bits and tip them upside down and re attach and they would be fine.. which was indeed the case of what we did… and then it was easy enough to add the other bits and make sure they were in the right places, and hey presto, we have an easel!
One that tilts….horizontally…..
As few of them do that….
Most are vertical, or on a bit of a tilt..
But this one is a watercolour easel.. that lies flat… for the paint to flow, or settle, or sit there quietly doing nothing with gravity, whilst it dries… on a solid base…
And that is what I need this one to do, for some exciting new ideas for paintings coming soon….
So, I love my new easel, its Italian, and a wonderful looking thing. I love my husband too for coming to help me when I thought I knew what I was doing, and it seemed I didn’t…
And as an extra bonus, this easel smells divine too…
Of oiled wood…
So it looks good, it smells good, and it does what it’s supposed to do..yay! Result!! 
