"NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION"
THE CREATION OF A UNIQUE POCHADE (box)
(many people call them pochade boxes...but the word "pochade" is French for box!
In 1998 I made a 5 week trip to Ireland to do plein air paintings. I was very limited on my luggage, and I planned being on foot a lot, so I needed to simplify my art materials to a minimum, so I searched for a pochade. Since I could not find a pochade that satisfied my needs (taking up little space, handling a wet palette and wet panels, set up had to be easy, repairs possible, and painting on larger formats than the box itself) I set out to design my own pochade, which is
THE BILLUPS BOX
A POCHADE STYLE OIL PAINTING BOX,
It was not designed for water colors
or pastels
or for stretched canvas!
Only for panels, for oils or acrylics
ARTIST TESTIMONIALS
POCHADE
I am still using your "Billups Box" with great pleasure.
It has lasted well over the years since I purchased it, in 1999, and has even held
up well now that we are living on the boat. It's my favorite easel.
Artist/Instructor from Florida
I just received my Billups box and wanted to let you know that it's PERFECT!
I'm wild about it.
It really is the best designed painting equipment I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot). No more splinters, struggles or heavy luggage. Thanks so much for this unique, wonderful product. I'm sure it will help my painting just because I won't be fighting with equipment! Regards,
Mona Vivar Jan. 2005
I took the box to Mexico and found it compact and easy.
Artist/Instructor from Arizona
DRY BOXES
Your dryboxes help simplify my equipment. I frequently carry 16x20 panels because they can be used as 4 - 8X10's, 12x20's, 16x16's etc...
The dry box is light, compact, sturdy, and fits in my suitcase. They are a wonderful product!
Jim Bickford, N.C.
| | | | "The Billups Box"
Pochade / Storage unit closed
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THIS POCHADE HAS BEEN PERSONALLY TESTED
When my luggage came thru customs, and not being present during inspection, my painting back pack was opened, and the tripod removed. When they attempted to put the tripod back into the back pack, they hit my pochade so many times with the head of the tripod, and with such force, that they TOTALLY destroyed the tripod, breaking all of the plastic housing off the support steal. HOWEVER, my pochade, which should have been totaled, had only one seam separate, which I was able to fix and repair within an hour!
Unlike wood pochades, which once they are broken, seldom can be repaired, this pochade is made of a "space age" "plastic", that is easily repaired with industrial acetone (not what you purchase at a regular store). My pochade has fallen off the back of golf carts (while painting with PAPA on Catalina Island), it has flown across fields, when the tripod head broke off...and NOT ONCE was the surface ever split, chipped or cracked!! The only problem I have ever had (in 6 years) is that one separated seam!!! Which was repaired in 5 minutes!
AS WITH ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS, AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE: ALTHOUGH THEY ARE REPAIRABLE, DON'T ABUSE IT TO BEGIN WITH! ALWAYS COUNTER BALANCE YOUR POCHADE WHEN WORKING OUTSIDE!
WHEN ORDERING, BE SURE TO MENTION IF YOU ARE LEFT HANDED...
SET UP IS THE REVERSE OF THE STANDARD POCHADE (CREATED FOR RIGHT HANDED ARTISTS!!!)! | | Pochade
8 x10
RIGHT HANDED
Approx. wt. 4#
5.25 x 8.5 x10.5
S/H $30. CANADA $40. |
| | | PATENT PENDING
Pochade viewed with 8x10 panel
(which sets on surface, NOT inside lid)
|
4 MAJOR PROBLEMS SOLVED
When painting en plein air, the equipment an artist uses is extremely important!! The four biggest problems or challenges with plein air painting are
1. Set up should be extremely easy and fast (due to changing light affects!!! and weather conditions!)
With french easels...there are these "wing nuts" and after setting up and taking down 3 or 4 times a day, those little nuts become 4 letter words!!!
With the BILLUPS BOX, a pochade style painting platform, if you use a quick release tripod (available at all photo supply stores), I CAN BE SET UP and painting, IN 2 MINUTES...and taking down is just as quick!!!
2. Getting paint on everything!!! The palette and wet painted panels can get on clothing, car seats, just about everything!!!
That is why I designed this pochade, "The Billups Box", in the manner that I did! It has a storage area below, which holds 6 wet panels (holds up to 1/4" thick panels)...or if you want to store tubes of paint...it`s your choice. BUT, tubes of paint, and brushes ARE NOT a problem when plein air painting. WET, OILY stuff is!!
3. Most pochades usually only have palettes the size of the box...with THE BILLUPS BOX, the palette is twice the size: the 8x10 pochade has a 20x8 palette, and the 9x12 pochade has a 9x24 palette, which hinges together, and folds when put away. There is a small "fence" along the one end, where you put your oil paint piles, and when the palette closes, the fence keeps from squishing the paint, and also keeps the paint from sliding into the pochade, and making a mess!!!
4. LOCATION PAINTING CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR EQUIPTMENT!!
This pochade was designed so that any one can repair it while on location. I heard of one artist on a horse pack trip, that found his wood pochade totally flattened by the time they arrived at their destination (guess it was under one of the ropes that tied stuff on the horse!) IF that were to happen with The Billups Box...it could be repaired over night!!! Good as new!!
AS WITH ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS, AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE: ALTHOUGH THEY ARE REPAIRABLE, DON'T ABUSE IT TO BEGIN WITH! ALWAYS COUNTER BALANCE YOUR POCHADE WHEN WORKING OUTSIDE!
| | Pochade
9 x 12
RIGHT HANDE
Approx. wt. 4+#
5.25 x 9.5 x12.5
S/H $30/Canada $40 |
| | | Barry John Raybould using my pochade
|
In the year 2007 Barry John Raybould commissioned me to create a pochade for him, using special
requests for his particular needs. This image is that pochade, which if ordered as you see it,
costs an additional $120.00...that includes the brush holder (for myself, this actually gets in the
way of having a full range of motion while painting)....it also includes a means of keeping the
front flap horizontal so that you have an extended "table" to lay things on( for this option
additional, is only $30 extra)...HOWEVER, it can be
purchased
as the original is shown on this web site, for the original costs as noted...
| | | Photo: Schlanser, Glacier Park
The larger panels (up to 18x24)
(shown here with 12x16 panel)
are held in place with
a small hand clamp
(included with each Pochade)
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ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Glacier National Park
June-July 2001
I was invited by Glacier National Park, to be one of their Artist in Residence, which was a wonderful experience of having two weeks to paint the park, being given a cabin on the lake. My painting days ran from sunrise, around 6 a.m. until dark, or 11p.m.
During this time I had days of heavy winds (up to 40 m.p.h.), at which times I counter weighted my tripod with my bag of paints, turp can, etc. (that is, hanging them suspended below my tripod, inches OFF the ground). With creating over 35 paintings, not once did my set up blow over!
I worked on panels as small as 8x5, 8x10, 12x16 and up to 18x24 on location. At other times, when working indoors with models, I have painted as large as 22x28 using the 8x10 pochade.
Also an added feature as of July 2007, there is an additional small bar that rotates out, making the front drop down door, horizontal, and a nice added "table" place to lay brushes, etc. Also, metal hinges on the lid support, which are a tad sturdier than what was used previously.
| | | 12x16 STORAGE/DRYING BOX
Made from same material
as the Pochade
|
This is my personal 12x16, shown without a handle, and has a bit of paint here and there. It only comes with a handle for convenient handling, It holds about 6=8 wet panels, as with all of my equipment, they are for use with panels only, NOT for stretched canvas.
Made from the same material as the Pochade
AS WITH ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS, AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE: ALTHOUGH THEY ARE REPAIRABLE, DON'T ABUSE IT TO BEGIN WITH!
| | Holds 12 wet Panels
(Shown without handle)
Comes with Handle (see last image) |
| | | 16x20 DRYING BOX & PALETTE
Shown w/ guitar strap
But all carriers come with handle, as seen in next image
Holds 5 wet 16x20 panels
up to 1/4" thick
also a 16x20 palette (included).
|
16x20 DRYING BOX & PALETTE
Holds 5 wet 16x20 panels, up to 1/4" thick
and also a 16x20 palette (included).
Made from the same material as the Pochade
And fits onto the pochade the same way as the regular palette.
The palette is stored in the Drying Box (the "window" can be seen in the photo...the palette slides in the same way as the wet panels, faces in toward the interior. There is a separate wall between the palette and the wet panel area. The window is "open" in order to keep the interior of the palette area clean from any paint that might drop off. There are also 4 spacers (which can be seen inside the window) that keeps the palette from smashing into the wall, thus keeping your paint in an orderly manner between locations.
The entire box closes with the same latches as the pochade.
I have used the larger palette indoors with no problem. Outdoors, use caution on very windy days...counter-balance your set up, so the wind doesn`t treat it like a sail!
AS WITH ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS, AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE: ALTHOUGH THEY ARE REPAIRABLE, DON'T ABUSE IT TO BEGIN WITH!
| | Holds 5 wet 16x20 Panels
with 16X20 Palette
Comes with handle (see image below) |
| | | 16x20 WET PANEL BOX
SHOWN W/ HANDLE
Holds 8 wet panels up to 1/4" thick
|
16x20 DRYING BOX W/O PALETTE
Holds 8 wet 16x20 panels, up to 1/4" thick
Made from the same material as the Pochade
AS WITH ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS, AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE: ALTHOUGH THEY ARE REPAIRABLE, DON'T ABUSE IT TO BEGIN WITH!
| | Holds 8 wet 16x20 Panels
without Palette
S/H $40/Canada $50 |
ARTIST TESTIMONIALS
POCHADE
I just received my Billups box and wanted to let you know that it's PERFECT! I'm wild about it.
It really is the best designed painting equipment I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot).
No more splinters, struggles or heavy luggage.
Thanks so much for this unique, wonderful product. I'm sure it will help my painting just because I won't be fighting with equipment! Regards, Mona Vivar January 2005
Just to let you know - I am still using your "Billups Box" with great pleasure. It has lasted well over three years and has even held up well now that we are living on the boat. It's my favorite easel. (East Coast Artist)
It's beautiful. I'm just back from a jaunt (to Scandinavia) myself ... Meanwhile, I shared a look at the box and your catalogue with a couple of painting friends in Sonoma, who raved about your landscapes. Nothing could be more inspirational an initiation. So thank you for both....Berkeley CA Plein Air painter
DRY BOXES
Your dryboxes help simplify my equipment. I frequently carry 16x20 panels because they can be used as 4 - 8X10's, 12x20's, 16x16's etc...
The dry box is light, compact, sturdy, and fits in my suitcase. They are a wonderful product! Jim Bickford, N.C.
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