Oscar Anderson Easel Revisited

Jack Winslow using the Anderson Easel 

Jack Winslow plein air painting in 2008 

Close-up from underneath of clips holding the palettes sticks to back leg

Close-up of the back leg and palette sticks from the back

The label

Close-up of one of the legs, showing how you can adjust height

Close-up of the clip when it is locked in place

Close-up of the clip unlocked

In closing the easel, the 2 palette sticks, together with the back leg, clip together

Palette sticks and back leg from back

Back in 2008, I posted a few pictures of my husband, Jack, and me out landscape painting (See July 5, 2008 post).  Jack was using a large easel, commonly known as the "Gloucester Easel".  It was made by Oscar Anderson, a MA landscape painter active in  the  early to mid nineteen hundreds.  The easel we own belonged to Thomas Curtin, another artist who painted  in Cambridge, VT, and who passed away in 1977.   The Anderson easel is primarily useful for large outdoor paintings.  Since I generally work pretty small, I tend to use the Open Box M, now, because everything can be stuffed into one small, light backpack, but Jack uses the Anderson when he works on large plein air pieces.  His paintbox, as well as his premixed strings fit nicely on the "tabletop" that is formed by the V-shaped palette sticks. 

 I received an email from another artist asking for close-ups of the mechanisms.  Since other artists might be interested, as well, I took these photos.  I hope they are helpful.

Because of the resurgence of outdoor landscape painting, and creating larger plein air pieces, new companies are making easels that are similar in design.  The newer easels are larger,  and they are price around $350-$400.  One of those companies is Take-it-Easel from Vermont.  http://www.takeiteasel.com/index#nice1

Jack's finished painting of Mt. Mansfield