Essential Plein Air Painting Kits for Beginners in the UK

Putting together your first plein air painting kit is one of those tasks that sounds straightforward until you actually try to do it. You search online, find a dozen different lists, and suddenly you're wondering whether you need a pochade box, a field easel, a tripod, water-soluble oils, or all four at once. The good news is that a workable plein air painting kit for a beginner is simpler and more affordable than most of what you'll find on those lists. This guide covers everything you need to get started outdoors in the UK, whether you're painting in oils or watercolour, and it's written with British suppliers, British prices, and British weather in mind.

What Should a Beginner Plein Air Painting Kit Actually Include?

Before we get into specific products, it helps to understand what a plein air kit is actually made of. There are five core categories every outdoor painter needs to think about, regardless of medium.

A surface to paint on

For oils, wooden panels are generally preferable to stretched canvas outdoors. They don't flex in the wind, they're easier to transport without damage, and they dry without risk of denting. Gesso-primed MDF or wooden panels are widely available from UK suppliers and are an excellent starting point. Canvas pads can work, but panels are the more practical choice.

For watercolour, paper quality matters more than almost anything else in your kit. Use a minimum of 300gsm. Anything lighter will buckle as soon as it gets wet, which outdoors can be quite quickly. A gummed watercolour block keeps the paper flat automatically, which makes it far easier to manage in the field than loose sheets clipped to a board.

Something to hold and carry your gear

This is where terms like "pochade box" and "field easel" come in. A pochade box is a compact wooden box that holds your palette and paints, with a slot or clips for your panel on the lid. It attaches to a tripod and gives you a very self-contained working unit. A field easel is a traditional three-legged easel designed to fold down small and be carried easily. Both work well; they just suit different working styles and budgets. We'll cover this more in a dedicated section below, but the short version is: you don't need either to get started. A basic aluminium field easel is the most affordable route in.

Paints, brushes, and a palette

Outdoors, less is more. A limited palette of five or six colours is genuinely easier to work with outside than a full studio range, and it forces you to mix rather than grab. For brushes, two or three good ones beat ten mediocre ones every time. For a palette, oils painters can use a small tear-off disposable palette pad, and watercolour painters already have their palette built into their travel tin.

The stuff most beginners forget

This is the category that catches people out. You've thought carefully about your paints and your easel, but have you thought about how you're going to carry wet panels home without ruining everything? A simple carrier (even a zip-lock bag or a purpose-made wet panel carrier) is essential for oil painters. You'll also want: a few rags or kitchen roll, hand cleaner (Zest-It or a citrus hand paste work well for oils), something to sit on if you're going to be out for more than an hour, and a small waterproof bag or cover to protect your kit from the inevitable British drizzle.

Oil Painting Kits for Beginners Outdoors

What makes outdoor oil painting kit different from studio kit?

The main difference is portability and self-containment. In the studio, you can leave your solvents out, have a large palette, and not worry about the wind. Outdoors, everything needs to travel with you and ideally fit in a bag. Traditional oils work perfectly well outside; you'll just need to think about how to carry a small amount of solvent (odourless mineral spirit in a sealed travel container is the usual approach). Water-soluble oils, such as Winsor and Newton's Artisan range, remove that need entirely: you clean brushes with water, which is a real advantage when you're miles from a sink. They behave very similarly to traditional oils and are widely available from UK suppliers.

Drying time is also worth thinking about. Oils dry slowly, which means your panel will still be wet when you pack up. A wet panel carrier, or even a simple homemade solution using two panels taped face-to-face with small corner spacers, keeps things manageable.

A simple starter oil kit list

• Gesso-primed wooden panels (20x25cm or similar is a good starting size)
• A small selection of oil paints: a warm and cool of each primary, plus a white and an earth tone
• Two or three brushes: a medium filbert, a small flat, and a small round covers most situations
• A tear-off palette pad or small wooden palette
• Odourless solvent in a sealed travel container, or water-soluble oils to avoid this entirely
• A wet panel carrier or equivalent
• Rags, hand cleaner, a small bag for everything

Recommended starter oil kits and bundles

If you want to buy individual components, Jackson's Art is an excellent starting point. Their own-brand Jacksons oil paints offer genuine value at a quality level suitable for outdoor work, and their primed MDF panels are well-regarded. A budget build-your-own kit from Jackson's, covering panels, a starter set of paints, and a couple of brushes, will typically come in somewhere between £40 and £70 depending on your choices.

For a ready-made set, the Winsor and Newton Artisan water-soluble oil starter set is a solid option for absolute beginners. It includes a small selection of colours and is widely stocked by Cass Art, Ken Bromley, and Jackson's. The colour range is more limited than a traditional set, but that's actually fine for a first outdoor kit.

If your budget stretches a little further, Ken Bromley and Cass Art both offer oil painting starter bundles in the £60 to £100 range that typically include paints, brushes, and a small canvas or panels. The trade-off with ready-made bundles is that you may end up with colours you wouldn't have chosen yourself, but they take the decision-making out of the process entirely.

Watercolour Kits for Painting Outdoors

Why watercolour is worth considering as your first plein air medium

Watercolour is the most portable of all the painting mediums, and that matters a great deal outdoors. Your entire kit can fit into a small bag. There are no solvents to carry, no wet panels to protect on the way home, and cleaning up is just a matter of rinsing your brushes. Drying time is fast, which means you can often complete a study and pack up without worrying about smearing anything.

The trade-offs are real too, and it's worth being honest about them. Mixing large washes can be tricky in wind and changing light. Paper handling requires more attention outdoors than in a studio. And watercolour is an unforgiving medium in the sense that corrections are harder than they are with oils. None of these things should put you off, but they're worth knowing going in.

What a basic watercolour plein air kit looks like

• A compact travel palette or watercolour tin (pre-filled with pans, or fillable with your own tube colours)
• A small selection of artist-grade pans or tubes: a warm and cool of each primary, a neutral tint or Payne's grey, and a yellow ochre or raw sienna covers most outdoor scenes
• A watercolour block, 300gsm minimum, cold press surface (the texture takes washes well and the gummed binding keeps sheets flat)
• Two or three brushes: a medium round (size 8 or 10), a small round (size 4), and a flat wash brush
• A small water container (a collapsible silicone cup works well; a small jam jar does the job just as effectively)
• A bulldog clip or two, useful for securing loose reference sketches or notes

Recommended watercolour starter kits

The Winsor and Newton Cotman Compact Set is the most commonly recommended entry point for beginner watercolourists in the UK, and for good reason: it's affordable, widely available from Cass Art and Jackson's, and comes with a decent selection of colours in a genuinely portable tin. It's worth being clear, though, that Cotman is a student-grade range. The pigments are more muted and less lightfast than artist-grade colours. It's a perfectly reasonable starting point, but if you find yourself enjoying plein air watercolour and want to improve, upgrading to artist-grade paints will make a noticeable difference.

For a similar budget option, the Daler-Rowney Aquafine Travel Set is another widely stocked choice across UK art shops. The quality is broadly comparable to Cotman; it's a student-grade set at a student-grade price.

If you'd rather invest once rather than upgrade later, the Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolour travel palette is a more serious piece of kit. It's fillable with half-pans or tube colour, uses the full professional range, and will genuinely last for years. It's a higher upfront cost, but for someone who's already reasonably confident they enjoy watercolour, it's a worthwhile investment.

Choosing the Right Easel or Pochade Box for Your First Kit

Field easel vs. pochade box: the quick version

A field easel is a lightweight, three-legged easel that folds flat and can be carried easily. An aluminium field easel from Cass Art or Jackson's typically costs between £25 and £45, making it the most accessible starting point for most beginners. It holds a panel or canvas, adjusts for height and angle, and does its job without fuss.

A pochade box is a self-contained painting unit: a box that holds your palette and paints, with a way to attach your panel on top, all mounted on a tripod. It's a more integrated and often more comfortable setup once you're used to it. Prices range from around £80 for basic models up to £300 or more for quality wooden boxes. They're genuinely excellent pieces of kit, but they're a considered purchase rather than a day-one necessity.

A tabletop pochade box is a smaller, lighter variation designed to sit on a wall, a fence, or a folding table rather than a tripod. It's a good option if you want a compact setup without the full tripod.

A basic easel recommendation for beginners

For most UK beginners, a simple aluminium field easel is the right first purchase. The Jakar aluminium field easel, available from Cass Art and several other UK suppliers, is a reliable and affordable option in the £25 to £40 range. It's not glamorous, but it's stable, adjustable, and folds down small enough to fit alongside your kit in a large rucksack. If you want to explore more options and understand what to look for in an outdoor easel, a detailed comparison is worth seeking out before making a final decision.

How Much Does a Starter Plein Air Kit Cost?

This is the question most beginners are really asking, and the honest answer is: less than you might fear. If you already have paints from a class or previous use, you can get started for very little. If you're starting from scratch, a comfortable beginner kit for oil or watercolour is achievable in the £100 to £180 range.

You don't need the top tier to make good work. Many experienced plein air painters will tell you their best early paintings were made with a very limited kit, partly because having fewer options forces clearer decisions. Start at a level you're comfortable with and add to it as you discover what actually matters to you in practice.

What to Buy First If You Are on a Budget

If you need to prioritise, here's a straightforward order to work through:

1. Surfaces. Without something to paint on, nothing else matters. A small pack of gesso-primed panels (for oils) or a 300gsm watercolour block is the essential first purchase.
2. A way to hold your surface. A basic aluminium field easel does the job at low cost. In a pinch, propping your panel against a bag or a wall works for a first session.
3. A limited colour range and one or two good brushes. Five or six colours and two brushes will take you much further than a full range of mediocre ones.
4. A palette. For oils, a tear-off disposable palette pad is inexpensive and practical. For watercolour, your travel tin is already the palette.
5. The basics: rags, water, hand cleaner, something to carry it all. A sturdy tote bag or a rucksack with a few compartments works fine before you invest in a dedicated art bag.

Everything beyond this list is an upgrade. A pochade box, a quality tripod, a wet panel carrier, a folding stool: these are all worthwhile in time, but none of them are what you need on your first outing.

Where to Buy Plein Air Painting Kits in the UK

There are several reliable UK suppliers worth knowing about:

• Jackson's Art (jacksonsart.com): wide range across all media, frequent sales, own-brand paints and panels that offer good value, and strong stock of both oil and watercolour kit. One of the best starting points for UK buyers.
• Ken Bromley Art Supplies (kenbromley.co.uk): particularly strong for oil painters, good customer service, and a reliable range of outdoor-relevant kit including panels, brushes, and mediums.
• Cass Art (cassart.co.uk): physical stores in several major UK cities including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Bristol, which is genuinely useful if you want to see products before buying. Decent online range too.
• Great Art (greatart.co.uk): particularly good for surfaces, panels, canvases, and paper; competitive pricing and a broad stock.

A note on US suppliers: many popular plein air products are sold primarily through US-based retailers, and while some of them ship to the UK, the combination of shipping costs, import duties, and VAT can add significantly to the price. Always check the total landed cost before ordering from a US-only supplier. If the same product is available through a UK distributor, it's almost always more cost-effective to go that route.

It's also worth checking Facebook Marketplace and eBay for second-hand easels and pochade boxes before spending full price. Both come up regularly and, assuming the mechanics are sound, there's no reason a used easel won't serve you just as well as a new one.

The kit matters less than you might think right now. What matters most is getting outside, finding a view that interests you, and making a start. Every painter who does this seriously has a story about an early session with a cobbled-together kit that produced something they still remember fondly. Start with what you have, add what you actually need as you discover it, and let the painting itself be the point.