drawing
by J Guerrero
Okay, this is a pretty dry name for a fairly versatile
little easel. Its Italian name is much lovelier—Cavalleto
campagna olio/acquerello (oil/watercolor folding easel)—but
a bit less descriptive and quite difficult to pronounce if you don’t
speak Italian or aren’t willing to fake it.
It’s sort of like a French easel with a
board rather than with a box or drawer. That means that it
doesn’t weigh much.
It’s sort of a field easel with a board attached, just so you can figure out what you are supposed to do with
it.
You can clamp a canvas on it with the traditional
rest and top clamp. Or you could clip or tape
a sheet of paper on it to draw. You can pivot the panel to be horizontal in order to paint with watercolors. (I suppose, in
a pinch, you could use it to iron your collar and cuffs.)
It folds up to next to nothing to stash
in a trunk or a closet.
It looks like the kind of easel you would take into a museum to sketch from the masters,
if they’d let you.
