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Most people like to stand to paint as it enables one to constantly step back to view the painting, but a lot of people need to sit down, including myself, when I’m painting for a long time.  What is the best solution?  It’s going to be the one that suits you the best – stating the obvious I know.  So what are the options.  For me, I find lying the canvas on a table lower than myself works quite adequately and that the chair needs to not have arms or for it to be a stool. Not only do I have a table lower than myself, I have three tables lower than myself which I spread around me so that I have the freedom of movement with my body and this freedom of movement can then convey itself into the painting plus I can distribute all my paints, brushes and equipment around me.

However, there are various easels available on the market that also can be suitable as shown above.  This is a Windsor & Newton easel that one of the art students owns and, as you can see, the canvas is held on the easel lower than the table itself so that they can sit nice and comfortably near it.  They too have a table to their side to place their palette upon and a bag for their rubbish to their left to make it all as easy as possible.  Painting needs to be an enjoyable experience so it’s important to go the whole hog and make the environment as comfortable as possible.