Soho Urban Artist Scout Pochade Box for Plein Air Painting Easel with Storage, Lightweight & Portable, Mahogany Finish

I use this primarily for oil painting. I had some trouble with stability and my pochade was spinning all around. Once I figured that out ( and used some glue to firmly affix the tripod mount after screwing it in) it holds great and is stable. I use the matching soho tripod. The interior holds brushes and W&N medium bottles and smaller tubes of oil paint. There is just one divider wish it had two. I can also carry palette knives and the medium cups without lids. I use gray palette paper. If you paint on the acrylic and your paint dries, you will probably dissolve the acrylic if you use thinner, so use a paper towel and baby wipes. You can mix directly on the wood too if you prefer. I’m pondering adding a glass palette. Not sure if it can support that weight. To keep it tightly closed I add a big rubber band like you would fit sketchbooks or your wet painting and contents will go everywhere. I’m considering buying a second one for gouache because I simply cannot afford expensive pochades. It ok for gouache but it’s not great for holding non spiral sketchbooks. You can paint on watercolor panels in gouache, I love that. I have trouble attaching my paper towel holder securely to this. The brush holes don’t always match what I have either. But you can add more accessories.

I bought this box because of its design, specifically the panel securing hardware and the ability to carry wet panels inside while the box is closed. Also, I wanted to be able to use it on my lap, as I need to sit while painting plein air. There seemed to be nothing similar in my price range with these features. BUT there is a major flaw in the design. In the first one I bought, the thin, sliding wooden pallette was warped, preventing the box from closing. So I returned that one and re-bought it. The second one was somewhat warped but could be finessed into the slot for closing, so I kept it. We wanted a second one for my husband, so we ordered another one. It was warped and not closeable. Again, we returned that one and re-bought another one. Warped again! My husband ended up cutting off the end of the pallette so the box would close without the pallette having to slide into the slot. This is poor workmanship, but again, the features of this particular box was worth it to us. We'll see how it performs in the field. Good luck getting a good one that doesn't require modification.

Very impressed with this box !!! It has perfect storage for paints, and I love the detachable plastic palette! The fact that I can use a regular camera tripod is so cool to me. I feel like the weight is good, not extremely lightweight, but it is lighter than you’d expect for a whole wooden box! I think it is beautiful and works wonderfully for a plein air class! Very happy with this purchase !

This is a really good plein air box for its low price: $70.00 at time of purchase. A couple reviews mention it being smaller than they expected, but I found it it be the perfect size as a plein air pochade. The storage compartment is large enough to fit roughly 25 tubes of travel size (22mL) paint. It could easily fit fewer tubes of a larger size. I personally only store my split primaries and two whites, to keep weight low. The separate compartment for brushes is able to fit at least eight medium sized ones, in addition to my double palette cups. Just be cautious of how many you store, they can slip out into the paint compartment when traveling if you overfill it. The slide out palette is nice, as is the acrylic palette. You can slip a value scale between the two and attach palette paper to the acrylic board, if you hate cleaning paint as much as I do. The extended tray holds the small travel brushes I need, but cannot hold larger studio brushes. These holes could be drilled to be larger without compromising structural integrity, but I like it as is. The tray does not extend to a full horizontal position, which I personally like, as it prevents my working brushes from falling onto the ground. Palette cups can snugly clip onto the side tray, but be cautious of scratching the varnish. Overall, this is a lovely pochade that is perfect for painting outdoors or indoors, but the nature of its portability means compromising for less storage capacity, and its price point means compromising on weight. *Review Update I've had the chance to use this in the field with an 8lb load capacity tripod and it worked beautifully. I am bumping up my review to five stars and would strongly suggest this box if you've been looking for a reasonable compromise on price. This pochade is everything I needed and more.

This is a great Pochade box. It's compact, versatile and beautiful. I did however find one significant problem. The tripod receptor attached to the bottom of the box was install from outside, which resulted it pulling out of the box when I tightened up the tripod. I remedied it by removing it from the outside and installing it from the inside. This worked well for me and I have not had any problems since. If the manufacturer sees this review please change the assembly of this unit by installing the connector from the inside instead of the outside. Besides that, I really like this box, Sorry for the 3 star. I would have given it a 5 star if not for the problem.