Small Works / Color Studies - Memories of Summer.

Summer’s End, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches, Jim Serrett

Summer’s End is always just a bit melancholy.

The mood of this sunset seemed to say it all.

There seems to be a longing for the sun in each of us.

It may be why we respond so emotionally to sunsets.

Comes the Rain, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches, Jim Serrett

Rain showers moving across the horizon are just fascinating to watch.

Pretty challenging to paint from life, this one is more memory than actual.

They leave a lasting impression.

Pine Hills Bluff, oil on panel, 5 x7 inches, Jim Serrett

LaRue-Pine Hills a 150-foot limestone bluff that rises out of the Mississippi floodplain, the massive bluffs extend roughly 5 miles along Highway 3. The vistas from it are amazing, however this view is of the park access road looking towards the bluffs from Hwy3.

Fading Light, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches, Jim Serrett

Best time to be on the lake.

Kayaking, wandering, exploring

and just slowing down and being.

Rain Over There, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches, Jim Serrett

The late summer rain,

paint it with all the colors of the wind.

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Small Gems - Pochade Box Paintings

Small Gems by Jim Serrett

An exhibit of my Original Pochade Box Paintings will be at the Visual Arts Cooperative. These 5 x 7-inch oil studies and sketches are on 3/8 hardwood panel ready to hang. Come on by this FIRST FRIDAY...

Opening, August 3, 5 - 9 pm

Visual Arts Cooperative Committee (VACC)

16C North Spanish Street

Cape Girardeau, MO

www.capearts.org

Pochade Box Paintings

A Pochade Box is a small box used for painting on location. The word pochade is derived from the French word "pocher", meaning to sketch. The box is great tool for exploring composition, making color studies, gathering references and knowledge, basically creating a visual library of information. These sketches are exercises in capturing what I see in front of me and about the simple pleasure of painting. In that, they are small gems to treasure.

"A sketch has charm because of its truth - not because it is unfinished."

                                                                                                                    ---Charles W. Hawthorne

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

How to build a Pochade Box Panel Carrier

Winter 09, pochade painting, oil on canvas

This is the second installment on,” building your own Pochade Kit. The following instructions are for an easy to make Panel Carrier. Again, the idea was to use nothing but simple hand tools and easily accessible materials and also for this kit to be a cost effective way for anyone interested in working en plein air, to join in.
I think it should be said that on the market today there are some highly crafted and beautiful Pochade Kits available. The majority of which are worth every penny they charge for them.
Their cost has gone down considerably in the last few years, and I do see even cheaper models being offered, but I worry a bit about the quality of mass marketed and mass produced kits. I just hope when it comes time for me to upgrade to one of those high end set ups, they are still around. Just take a look at some of the off brand name French Easels in art supply stores.
Those knock offs have done more to damage the reputation of that easel than anything else.
So anyway, the whole point of this Pochade adventure is to give us an inexpensive avenue into working on location, in front of nature, and also to conserve expenditures for paying the bills and buying paint. Well at least until we get that huge commission or make a sale.
On to the kit.
I decided to build this box to hold 8’x10” (20x25cm) and 6”x8”(15x20cm) canvas panels or 1/8”
hardwood panels. I also wanted it to fit easily into my backpack with the box. I ended up with a panel carrier that is 9”x11” (23x27cm) finished size, which fits into almost any normal pack,
and holds seven panels total, or in my case six panels and a hand palette.

Material List:
Hardware latch and hinge $4.18
½ x 4” x 4” Pine board 2.20
¼ x 36” Hardwood dowels 3.70
1/4” x 2’ x 4’ Birch plywood 10.00
Total Cost: $20.08 USD

Tools List:
Miter saw and box
Hammer
Screwdriver
Sandpaper


You should have plenty of wire brads, wood glue, stain and polyurethane left over from the Pocahde Box.
I will say, if you build this box, go ahead and buy an extra three feet of four inch stock and build two of them at once. With the extra stock and the remaining supplies from the first, you will have enough materials to make two carriers for just a few more dollars and a little more effort. One of those hind site things. LOL

The sides of my box will be (10 1/4”) ten and one quarter inches long. This will give me room for the lid and the bottom panel, for a finished box size of eleven inches. Take a piece of two inch stock and cut it to (20 ½”) twenty and a half inches. Then attach your ¼” square dowels with glue and 5/8” wire brads. Use one of the dowel pieces as a spacer and stair step your way across the board until you get to the end and have something that looks like this.

Allow to dry over night. Then cut in a miter box, two lengths of 9 ¼” inches. Turn the two ends around so that the teeth match and mark with an X. This is the top of your panel sides. Check the width of your box with a canvas board.

Cut two panels from your Birch plywood, at nine (9”) by eleven (11) inches. Mark the top of the panels at one half inch (1/2”) for the lid and bottom one quarter inch (1/4”) for the base plate.
Line your side supports to those two lines and glue and nail together.

Next cut a piece of four inch stock to nine inches for your lid. Cut a piece from your plywood to (9”) nine by (3½”) three one half inches for your bottom plate. Nail and glue this piece on.
You now have a Pochade Box Panel Carrier !
All that’s left to do is sand and finish if you wish, and last, install the hardware.

Because I wanted my Panel Carrier to slide in and out of a backpack, I spent some time rounding the sharp edges with a wood rasp and sanding to ease the roughness. I also stained and polyurethane the outside of the box and used a piece of the scrap to make a small hand palette which fits inside the box. When I was done and looking at the left over material, I realized I could have built two carriers with just a few dollars more of stock material. Considering the most time spent was on gluing the dowels down, you can just as easily make two carriers by using a longer piece and cutting into fours. Of course if you had a source to route out the dados instead of gluing the teeth in place, you could make this carrier in no time. But if you have limited tools and equipment, this is a great solution for a fast, simple and easy to build Pochade Box Carrier. You will then have a functioning” Pochade Kit”,Pochade Box and Carrier for only $55.44 us dollars. Spend the savings on a tripod, paints, brushes and supports, or save up for one of those high end tricked out Pochade Kits.
Enjoy Jim

What is a Pochade ?

If you’re an artist or art student you’re probably familiar with the term. If you’re new to painting or someone just cultivating an appreciation of art, it’s worth the time to just summarize what a Pochade Box Painting is, and is not.
A Pocahde box is a small paint box mounted on a tri-pod used for painting on location. The word pochade is derived from the French word “pocher”, meaning to sketch.
The Pochade is no new invention. Artists have been painting landscapes “en plein air” or in the open air for some time now. Doing quick oil sketches or studies on location, which were often used as the source material for larger more ambitious studio works.
By the early 1800’s there was a major change in artist’s subject matter. A growing middle class, social and political upheaval, even revolutions that would restructure society. It would change forever an artist’s role - freed from the restraints of an aristocratic society of painting nobility and religious iconography. The elite aristocrat patron, was replaced by a larger wealthy upper “bougeous” class. That was a door of opportunity for the artist to pursue new concepts and genres.
The English painter John Constable did numerous oil sketches on location. He later translated some into larger or more finished pieces but is credited with being one of the first painters to work directly from nature. When first exhibited they were recognized for their freshness and spontaneity and created a major stir. They were bold and innovated and would be a huge influence on later Impressionists. What they declared most loudly was that the landscape was not just for mere background decoration, or for some moral-social political-allegorical icon, but worthy of subject matter on their own. Interesting schools of outdoor painting would follow - the Barbizon, the Impressionist, the Hudson River School and American Impressionist would all claim linage to him.
When you look at landscape painters such as Constable, or Thomas Moran and one of my favorites, Edgar Payne, you are awestruck by the information they convey in simple direct brushwork. Not because they learned some system or trick, but have spent their time in front of nature cultivating their skills. And the best way to emulate what these artists have done is to follow their footsteps. The first part of that journey is physically getting there.
One of the reasons for this blog is the resurrection of the pochade box.
As I’ve tried to point out there’s nothing new in this concept. Certainly some notable artists working in this format have helped. But the major reason for its revival is the innovations in equipment.



I’ve been a dedicated fan of the French Easel. Well suited for large paintings on location, being a very stable platform, extremely useful indoors and out. It has however for me two major draw backs, one that it is too heavy and clumsy for a major hike. And when set up it becomes a magnet for everyone whose ever know an artist, seen an artist, or wants to tell you about Uncle Joe or Cousin Beth, that was an artist. And didn’t you know them? Sorry, I never saw painting as a group activity and find it very distracting. You can not really blame them. The French Easel when set up is a very interesting and elegant piece of equipment.
With the Pochade, you can quickly and inconspicuously get into places and work. That alone for me is its best feature.
The Pochade has had its own revolution in the last few years. The idea of a light weight tri-pod mounted painting platform has revitalized the plein air movement.
Having been a backpacker myself, it should have been a predictable evolution of modern components, but I am amazed by some of the ingenious designs that have come out lately. Any backpacker will tell you “light and simple” is the way to go. And most boxes I’ve tried truly simplified the effort to get oneself on location and set up. There are some beautiful Pochade boxes on the market, most reasonably priced.
But in my next installment on this blog, I will be giving a demonstration on how to build a functioning box for under sixty U.S. dollars. Stay tuned to this channel!
I will also be posting my efforts here, the successes and failures, hopefully not too much of the latter. In the end it is about connecting with your subject. Challenging yourself to capture what you see, and being “in” a dialogue with nature. It will only improve your skills and discipline, and hopefully send you home with a great experience that you can share.
For this artist, that is what a Pochade Box Painting “is” or is about.
What it “is not”, is a system or method, some new “ism” or commercial margin zed product you buy. It is not a magic box, the magic is in nature, you’ve just got to go there and capture it.
So enjoy and get outdoors!