Artist Review of the KraftGeek Inspire Plein Air Easel

I nervously glanced over at a scale as I organized and reorganized dive equipment and art supplies into my luggage and backpack. We were catching three different flights from Washington DC to Fiji, and the weight limits of Fiji Airways were more restrictive than United Airlines. I needed to be absolutely sure that even my backpack was not over the limit.

Let’s Take this Easel to Fiji!

I paused and considered if this easel was worth trying out on such a long trip. As far as scuba trips go, this one wasn’t my furthest (the Maldives is 8,928 miles from DC) but this was the most remote. Our final flight to Taveuni (the Garden Isle of Fiji) was on a tiny Jurassic Park style puddle jumper of a plane (hence the emphasis on weight limits). Talk about adventure!

Focusing back on the task at hand, I moved the newest addition to my mobile art studio – the KraftGeek Inspire Plein Air Easel – back and forth from my luggage to my backpack, before finally deciding it would travel best in the checked baggage with my dive equipment. This way I wouldn’t have to stress about TSA having a problem with it in my carry on, and I would keep my backpack under the weight limit.

With that decided, it was time to begin almost two days of travel to go dive on Taveuni’s Somosomo Strait, home of Rainbow Reef.

Making Art on a Dive Trip

I was excited when KraftGeek reached out and asked if I would like to review the Inspire Plein Air Easel. I figured my dive trip to Fiji would be the perfect opportunity to really put it through the wringer.

I gather inspiration for my art while scuba diving. While underwater I sketch the animals and patterns I see on dive slates. Once we finish diving for the day and head back to shore, that is when I am able to break out all my art supplies, gather my dive slates covered in sketches, and create scenes inspired by the reefs.

This style of art practice requires supplies that enable me to make art on the go. Here is a look at what my mobile studio includes:

Saeko dive slates (I sketch on these underwater)
Customized watercolor palettes
Watercolor pencils or crayons
Winsor and Newton Fineliners
Brushes
Koh-I-Noor Woodless Graphite pencils (great for drawing below and above water)
Colored Pencils
Pens, Erasers, Sharpeners
Speedball Travelogue Watercolor Journal & Sketchbook

Until now, I haven’t been able to find an easel that worked with the size of my notebooks, travelled well, or was easy to use on location.

How was Using the KraftGeek Easel?

You will really know if you love or hate a product after you drag it 7,617 miles from Washington DC to an island in the Pacific and back. Let’s break down how the KraftGeek easel did during this trip!

Setup

I know some people do unboxing videos, but I don’t have the patience to calmly open a package while I video myself. It’s too exciting to get mail. So, take my word for it – the easel was beautifully packaged, and I had a great time ripping it out of its box!

Once out of the box I admired it for a moment. The easel I selected is all white (although there are four color options total including oak, walnut and black) and looks space age sleek, as if I could snap it into a panel on a spaceship and it blend in with modular ease.

Next, as one does, I ignored the beautifully made sheet of instructions and immediately started fiddling with the easel. If you are like me (impatient) and you bypass the instructions, have no fear – you will be able to set it up with ease. I did reference the six steps mentioned in the instructions after it was set up and am proud to say I had figured out all of them.

Portability

The weight of a plein air easel can make or break a painting experience. Luckily the Inspire Easel only weighs 3.85lbs. This made it easy for me to add it to my suitcase with my dive equipment and not worry about being over the airlines weight limit. It also made it easy for me to drag the easel all over gardens, the beach and our villa to set up and draw or paint.

Durability

The easel held up great during travel. The compact length and size of the easel (folded dimensions 4” x 2.2” x 19.9” ) enabled me to tuck it in next to all my bulky dive equipment. It didn’t break or scratch at all (I was surprised by this). Had I decided to carry it on the plane, it would have fit into my backpack as well.

On location, I could easily wipe sand off it. One time I forgot about it and left it out in the rain, and it dried off just fine. The only thing I didn’t do was chuck it in the ocean, but on future trips I might just do that to see how it holds up in salt water.

On a nerdy note, I am curious to find out what type of aluminum the easel is made from as some aluminum alloys are more saltwater resistant than others. Knowing this might encourage me to take it on a liveaboard dive trip.

Stability & Mobility

The easel was easy to set up wherever I wanted. There were times my sketchbook blew away in the wind, but the easel stayed firmly planted in the ground. On that note – I had trouble with the stability of my watercolor notebook on the easel and wish there had been a smaller setting in the easel to secure smaller canvases, notebooks and sketchpads. However, I know most people who are doing plein air aren’t restricted to smaller canvas/notebook surface areas like I am when I go on these far trips.

If I was painting closer to home this wouldn’t be a bother. But it would have been nice to have a latch setting to secure my favorite Speedball Handbook Watercolor Journal (which has a height of 10.5”) a little more firmly when the winds kicked up. Either way my other sketchbook (height 16”) secured under the top latch just fine. When I do another dive trip to the Caribbean, I will be able to bring larger canvases, and I am sure I will be happy with the latch setting (the clamped canvas height goes from 16”- 26”) at that time.

Cleaning and tidying up my art station was easy enough – being able to tear down, grab my things, and go to a new spot really only took a few minutes at most.

The Verdict

✈️ Travel Friendliness: The easel tucked neatly alongside my dive equipment and didn’t go over the airline weight limits.
🌬️ Stability + Durability: At one point my sketchbook blew away (due to its smaller size) but the easel didn’t budge. I dragged it halfway around the world and back and it did great.
🎨 Ease of Use: Setup was so easy I didn’t even need to use the instructions.
🧽 Cleanup: Minimal fuss, maximum painting, only a minute for setup or breakdown.
💸 Value: I think this easel is totally worth the purchase, especially if you are an artist who travels a lot or someone who needs a compact setup within your home studio.

Final Thoughts

I am grateful to KraftGeek for considering me for this review. I think this easel improved my on-the-go art routine and helped me to transition from dive mode to art mode more easily than on past trips. I was also able to take the easel out into the jungle and gardens and make landscapes drawings, which I have never done on a dive trip before. I am really pleased with those sketches and studies, and I cannot wait to turn them into final paintings.

After two weeks of using this easel in Fiji, I think this easel definitively earned its passport stamps. If you are the kind of artist who makes art wherever the tide takes you, this would be the easel to pack!