A New Easel

A double-masted adjustable painting

easel handcrafted by David Dibble

So, following the completion of The Barn Project, I realized that I loved painting large, and wanted to do more. But my little travel easel I had been using since grad school just wasn't cutting it for anything larger than two feet.

Thus, frustrated neccessity spawns equally dire solutions. I looked around to see what was on the market, and a double-masted adjustable easel seemed the best solution. And with so much leftover lumber from the murals and a friend's toolshop beckoning, why not just make my own? Of course, I learned early on why these are so expensive in the catalogs: this is the most complex wood-working project I have ever done. But I had a great time (albeit a very obsessive time) designing it, I learned a great deal about wood-working that I hadn't known, and I'm excited to make use of it. Now I just need to find a studio in which my easel doesn't comprise 1/4 of the square footage...and I only wish I were kidding.

And you'll no doubt laugh at the irony in the photos below as you see that though I built it for canvases up to and over 10', my first piece on it is not even 12"... we'll work up from there.