This is my first ever field easel. When I wanted to purchase it, me and a couple of friends had quite some discussions about the pros and cons of such easels. So now after some months of using it, I figured I’d give you an idea of what it’s like.

Long story short: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s great!

I absolutely looooove the look and feel of them old-school pretty pretty wooden easels. I didn’t think I would be able to replace that [and it’s still not out of the question that I’d eventually get yet another those given how much I love them]. Having said that… oh my god, I am so enjoying the freedom the field easel is offering!

To start with, it’s obviously lightweight and easy to carry around. That is, even when you’re in the middle of something and have a canvas on. And when you’re done, it doesn’t need to be a fixture of your living space. Folding it and putting it back in it’s carrying case takes only a few seconds.

One of the most important points of discussion was the question of stability. I’ve been outside with the Ars Nova easel in the wind, and there was next to no shaking. The telescopic legs are surprisingly and impressively quite stable. The weight is about 1.3 kg, which makes it very easy to travel with. And it can handle up to the weight of 8 kg, which is actually quite a lot for an easel.

There are of course a couple of shortcomings with this specific model too, it’s not all perfection. One issue is, just like many other easels, if your frame is somewhat small, you can’t fully fix it on the easel since there’s a limit to how far up you can move the stand. With quite a few of my frames, the frame doesn’t reach the top clip. This is normally not an issue, but it could become one if you’re outside and it’s seriously windy. [But if it’s that windy then you’ll probably have bigger problems.]

And tilt adjustment doesn’t really exist. You can only adjust tilt by modifying the opening angle of the legs [but interestingly, the legs are so stable that this actually does work!!].

As far as field easels go, the Ars Nova is a mid-price and probably mid quality one. For me it was mostly an experiment to see if I even like field easels. But now that I’m enjoying it so much, I think I’ll be on the lookout for better quality field easels with more functions. But if you’re looking for something rather cheap and very functional, the Ars Nova is very much recommended.