Having reached a certain maturity. It has become evident that I can no longer stand at an easel to paint for a long duration. So, am now dumping all my heavy late Pochade boxes I made and adapting my painting to sitting down. Very hard I can assure you after having stood for 40 odd years. But it had to come. James Fletcher Watson went down this road and he painted in the end from a very low chair with a board on his lap and his paints and brushes on a rug alongside him. So I did loads of research as to how I could reduce my payload on one hand and still be able to paint on a 1/4 d 1/2 sheet of paper. I redacted to making a 15”x11” board that would fit directly on my tripod. Then came up with the problem of shelving I don’t like add on shelves to the tripod, all that ducking and diving is hard work. My self made pochade boxes in the past as you may know, have got smaller and smaller, but not light enough, as I now need to carry a folding stool as well. (All my old pochades are now all for sale UK only PM me if interested) Well I have found a new one that loaded with a few brushes and tubes of paint weighs in at about a kilo and a bit.. The new Pochade I bought is made of solid Sapeli and has screw on side plates. It was not cheap, but certainly cheaper than the Strada I favoured, and, after it had been delivered from abroad. I discovered a load of constructional errors and problems that I had to overcome and fix myself. Problems encountered were ; carry shoulder strap lugs missing; the add on shelves were supposed to be stored under the box with screw knobs, these did not work as the screw receptors were out of kilter with the slots in the shelves; the final finish was very rough and I had to send it to a cabinet maker to have it finished to an acceptable finish; The leather handle retention came apart on the first outing, as the D rings were just screwed in to the wood with 1/4” camera tripod lugs, being a metal thread there was not enough guts to hold them into the body of the box. I have had to buy decent 3/8” ferrels to accept the 1/4” lugs. So, on reflection it was a very expensive item in the end. Especially as it had not been designed with deep enough storage area. So beware buying off the internet (Chines manufacture) does not work you need to see these items in the flesh. I certainly did not expect to pay £300 and have to finish it myself. It was not formatted as I am used to as it hinges at the back. Most watercolorist like a front hinge. But, and this is the important part. It weighs just over a 1 Kilo, has straps and carry facilities and it measures about 11”x 6”. So effectively my board won’t be that far away from me. It will also support a ½ sheet board as the back is near 11” tall. Theres a lot wrong with it as far as storage goes, as It will not hold enough brushes. (But I carry around a load I don’t use anyway) It will certainly not hold any of my pallets. So the reduction of carry on rubbish is welcome. I always use a large holdall to carry the Tripod, water etc etc that we all lug about. But now without the weight of a Pochade that weighs well over 5 kilo with everything in it, I am well on the way to start enjoying just painting again. Spare tubes of paint etc can now be carried in a small poly box, and my pallet and full roll of brushes from my studio will go in separate in the holdall if needed. I went down the route of buying a roll-along cabin bag at one time, that everything went in. But the overall weight was just prohibitive still, and I felt a prat towing the thing behind me to functions. I now have a multi pocketed MOD type haversack that suits well. Have I made the right decision. Time will tell. It nearly got to the stage that I gave up painting En Plein Air. Being 6”3” tall and not a small guy. Painting from the passenger seat of a car, did not cut it. But I enjoy just being out in the fresh air talking to the trees. We all get older, so watch this space.