The traditional half-box

The Mabef half-box easel is a practical way of carrying all that you need for painting and it comes with a straps for shoulder mounting. It allows various sizes of boards and canvas and the folding palette gives a decent amount of space for colour mixing. Storage space is a bit limited and arguably works better with small tubes (20ml) – not easy to find but I use Old Holland oils. Standard length brushes fit in along with a twin dipper (handy for mounting on the palette so that it doesn’t keep flipping shut on windy days) and I have a small guerrilla brush cleaner container which fits inside. Setting it up takes a little experience and a certain amount of juggling with the folding and extendable legs and it is on the heavy side, although in fairness most of the lighter pochades need a decent tripod and they are pretty heavy and of course you then have 2 bits of kit to carry. Biggest downside for me is that the various screws need to be constantly tightened – carrying a ‘Leatherman’ multi-tool is a must for putting it back together and of course opening reluctant tubes.