Convertible Painter's Easel

I used to have a large bulky artists easel. When I started to renovate the place years ago I had in mind a convertible wall easel. I gave that bulky easel to my daughter who has much more artistic skill than I do. I sometimes oil paint and sometimes watercolor paint. Oils are usually done with a vertical canvas on an easel with a lip at the bottom and an adjustable lip at the top to hold it on. Both lips are removable with a thumbscrew in the back. This easel accomplishes this as seen in the first picture.

When I want to use water colors I can loosen the knobs on the side and let the easel table slide down to a tilted or completely flat position. Flat is sometimes needed as you often flood the paper with water before painting. It’s called ‘wet on wet’ painting. Water color painting is also done on paper not a canvas. I have an 1/8” thick plexiglass the exact size of the table that I can lay on it to keep the table from getting wet. I can slide the entire table up and down. So I can sit on a chair or sometimes I like to sit higher on a stool.

The easel is made entirely out of hard maple (light in color to not look to conspicuous on the light wall) with a walnut border on the table. In the rails are embedded 7/8 sealed bearings with a 3/8” threaded rod going between them and that is covered by a 1/2” steel tube. The sliding arms have brass sleeves in them so there’s no wear on the wood. Everything came from those drawers at home depot in the hardware section. When I tighten the knob it pulls on it and creates friction on both the outsides and insides of the rail. It locks it very good. No danger of slippage. In either position you can slide the entire table up or down a considerable distance to be able to adjust the height for either sitting or standing.

Now to get back to painting…. But first I want to make that taboret to go with this. (taboret: Small bureau like table with drawers to put your paint stuff in and on)