DIY Pochade Box

All of my small oils (up to 5″x7″) are painted plein air using my DIY pochade box.
It is a pretty small hand-held box, the palette/mixing area measures 5.75 x 8 in.

I made the sides from Oak, the rest is Baltic Birch ply. I planned to make a brass lid support and a spring loaded panel holder (similar to Open Box M), but after using the box prototype for a while, I fell in love with it’s simplicity and decided to keep it just a box. I use it with either canvas taped on, or small canvas panels/gesso board mounted with four small pieces of sticky-tac. I hold the pochade box with my left hand using my thumb as a lid support.

Pochade Box Top Panel Pochade Box – varnish applied
Pochade Box Ready to Go

Acrylic palette in place and loaded with titanium white, cadmium yellow light, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue.