Every Artists Needs a Good Easel

“Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth,” said Archimedes. Or as most painters today would say, “Give me a good, easy-to-adjust, sturdy easel . . . please!”

Whether you prefer to stand or sit when you paint, your easel becomes part of you and your painting. Indeed, your easel’s potential can often liberate or limit your creative output.

At BINDERS, easels range from small table top easels to large, professional studio easels, plus everything between. The easel that’s best for you depends on your working methods and artistic goals. Here’s an overview:

Studio Easels are floor-standing easels designed mainly for oil and acrylic painting. They vary from small to extra large, with some being able to support weights of over 200 lb. and canvas over 8 feet tall. Studio easels make it easy to adjust the up/down position and tilt of your painting, and many include winches, multiple masts and casters. Pastelists favor easels with forward-tilt features to let the pastel dust fall away.

Paintbox Easels, also called French, Sketching and Pochade Box easels, are excellent for painting outdoors, en plein air. These easels, usually mid-sized or small, have telescoping, tripod legs and are easy to set up on location. Their built-in box is a handy place to store painting supplies. Most have a convenient handle or straps so you can carry it like a briefcase or a backpack. Paintbox easels are great for watercolor painting too. They are often the first easel for beginning painters.

Display Easels are lightweight, portable and easy to set up. They tend to be very simple in design with less concern for the stability needed by a working artist. They are ideal to display artwork when wall space isn’t available. At BINDERS, our very smallest display easels are just 5-inches tall.

Tabletop Easels are an excellent choice when space is an issue. Yet they are perfectly suitable for small and medium canvas sizes. Easy to set up, transport and store away, a tabletop easel can be placed on your kitchen table and folded up and put away when you are finished paintings. An excellent and inexpensive choice for beginning artists.

A new easel is a fabulous gift for any artist. And BINDERS offers a wide and wonderful selection of quality easels, work tables, lighting and accessories by some of the finest name-brand manufacturers: Mabef, Best, Winsor & Newton, Art Alternatives, Avanti, Cressida, Guerilla, Napoli, Testrite, Lyptus, Berkley Classic, BelAire Neuvo, Americana, CraftMaster, Creative Center, and more.

To summarize, painting easels are designed to hold your canvas while you paint. Stability is very, very important. You don’t want your painting to move around just when you’re laying down that final master stroke.

Visit the BINDERS website at www.bindersart.com!