How can you find the artist easel that will work best for you? When looking for an easel that best suits the needs of your individual practice, consider how and where you will be using it – you may need a sturdy easel because you push hard against the canvas as you paint, or an easel that will tilt to horizontal for watercolour painting, or a small easel for your cosy shed painting space.
Because it can be difficult to tell what features will work and not work for you just by looking at it, we asked artists to tell us which easel they use, why they chose it and what about their easel makes it the right one for them. This collection of feedback gives an insight into a range of easels – from why you might want a Tavy easel, whose bottom picture rest can be raised independently to prevent damage to low ceilings, to why a drafting table might solve the issue of wanting to have an easel which you can use at 45 degrees, 90 degrees or even flat. It clarifies some of the particular benefits of different easels as well as helping you decide which one would really suit you.
“I own three Frank Herring easels. The best being The Herring Versatile easel. Light, extremely versatile for both oil or watercolour, very stable and strong. A joy to work on and one that I recommend when demonstrating or running workshops. It’s simply the best.” – Rob Dudley
If Frank Herring easels are what you want, keep checking the Easel Department on the Jackson’s website as we will be stocking them shortly.
“Sturdy, wheels, adjustable height and angle for working, enough room for larger canvases.” –Carole Russell
“I have a Winsor & Newton Thames Radial Easel. I chose it because it holds large canvases and it is easy to move around and store as until now didn’t have a permanent studio space . I’m just setting up in my new studio, I think it still looks the part.” – Sarah Pooley
“I have the Daler Rowney Cotswold Studio Easel. Tall and sturdy, I love it.” – Helen Boyd
“I have a huge studio easel I have had for decades but I now live in a tiny cottage with ceilings too low to raise it to working height. My last studio was too cold to warm up to working temperature. I can’t win.” – Peter Helton
“I have a Tavy easel. You can move the bottom picture-rest up without raising the central pole and punching a hole in your ceiling!” – Emily Morgan
“I have the Rustic Oak Vintage Drafting Table from Studio Designs and I absolutely adore it! The size is good at 42 x 30 inches with Adjustable Angle Table Top from Flat to 90 Degrees and Built-in Pencil Groove with 24″ Pencil Ledge. At 90 degrees, I can paint large canvas’s with acrylics or oils resting on the ledge like you would with an easel, but after I finish those and use pastels, I angle it to 45 degrees which suits me, or flat for watercolours or pencils. I opted for this table as it’s super sturdy, after what is referred to in our house as ‘Easelgate’, where I battled with my old easel for 2 hours as it kept slipping, the canvas eventually hit me on the head, I almost threw the whole lot off the terrace and down the hill. Sense prevailed and instead did some research into what would suit me best, and this drafting table ticked all the boxes for me.
The things that almost put me off, is that a) it’s not height adjustable – but, as I sit in a height adjustable office chair, the problem cancelled itself out. b) it doesn’t have a side table – but my husband is building me a side table with a pullout underneath (like a keyboard slide out on a desk) to put my stuff on while painting. As I work from home, it was more important to me to have something stable that I can use at 90 Degrees to flat, rather than something that could be transported like for plein air (which I never have time for anyway). This drafting table was perfect for me and as a bonus, I can even use it for my sewing machine, it is that sturdy!” – Joanne Kane Pays
If you’d like a Studio Designs drafting table we stock a selection at Jackson’s and we will be adding the Oak Vintage drafting table soon.
“I used to own a draughtboard too. It was so good and may just be the answer!” – Mona George
If you want more information to help you find your perfect easel you can read The Ultimate Easel Guide on our blog.
At Jackson’s, we have a vast range of easels so that you can easily find the right one for you, whether you want to use it in the field, the studio or need one that can be packed down to save room at home. Go to our Easel Department to see the options available.
13 thoughts on “Finding the Best Easel”
I have a very cheap (around £50)
H-frame easel. I used radial easels
at art college and these seem to be
the favoured choice at art schools. I
don’t know why. They are notoriously
unstable with a large canvas. The
H-frame suits my needs perfectly. The
canvas can be rapidly raised and
lowered throughout the painting
process and the easel can be folded
flat to lean against a wall when not
in use, taking up very little
floorspace. I find easels with a
triangular ‘footprint’ more inclined
to topple with a large canvas.
Thank you Ron, for the advice and valuable insight — it’s great to know what works for particular artists.
I have a radial easel that was a 21st birthday preset 50 years
ago. Still in great condition. I also have a beech wood
sketching easel that is at least 20 years old.
That’s amazing and really shows how investing in a good easel is well worth it.
I would love your advice. I have never owned an easel
because my space for painting is tiny. It is also my
office and doubles as my utility.
I would like a lightweight easel I can take to my art
group and outside. I paint largely in acrylics and feel I
need to spread my wings and invest in an easel.
Hi Joan, one possibility, if you want an easel that can go on a desk and be set up outside, would be to get a french style box easel. Although it seems clunky you can detach the legs and use it as a makeshift table easel on a desk, it’s legs are adjustable so it’s great outdoors and since it’s designed for plein air work it’s quite lightweight. An added advantage for a home/ mobile studio is you can store your core materials tidily in the pochade box. We have two different sizes available: the full size and the half size.
Another possibility would be to get a straight sketching easel however since this is very lightweight and easy to pack down and store, however, you need room in your space to set it up. Here’s a range of our sketching easels.
Let me know if you need anymore help.
Torn between these three portable box, help!!
easles JULLIAN FULL SIZE SKETCH BOX
EASEL
Maven French Easel with Wheels
MABEF M22 FRENCH SKETCH BOX EASE
I seek two easels, a portable box style and a
study one. For the mobile box style, I like the
idea if the mobile ones on wheels that can
be dragged behind on a long handle, as in
the Maven French Easel, but I appreciate
that the Jullian full size sketch box model
and Mabef M22 may be superior in materials
and quality. Is it possible to get the Jullian
and Mabef versions with wheels, that you
can drag behind you, and which of the three
would you advise me to get and is the best
thought of.
Hi Vivienne, You could easily attach wheels to the Jullian or Mabef if that’s what you need, you can find caster wheels online and most of these just need a screw to attach them to the wood on the bottom of the easel. It depends on your priorities but personally I’m a fan of the Mabef–it’s quality to price, I feel is the most reasonable. It is durable and pleasing while still being extremely functional.
For the studio version easel, I need a sturdy
quality easel that takes canvases from
size16″ x 20″ to large, but can tilt too and
preferably has casters to move it from room
to room, or even outside into the garden. I
have short listed the Mabef M19, which has
castors, but it may be too large, the Mabef
M09 artist studio Easel, which is a better
size for me, but I don’t think it comes which
castors and the JULLIAN Oiled Beechwood, a
mobile studio easel on castors, or the Maven
Extra Large 360-Degree Spinner Wheel
Rolling H-Frame.
Again, you can always attach casters to the Mabef 19, if you feel this is the one that is the right size and has the qualities to meet your needs. Honestly, picking an easel is down to your own preferences. Hopefully, some of our readers have one of these easels and can explain why it appeals to them.
I’m looking for a substantial strong studio
easel as I am now on with my second. I do
quite a lot of large scale work and have to
adjust canvases continuously to paint
detail etc.. Can anyone please give a little
feedback on brands etc?
Hi Debbie,
Jackson’s sells some of the world’s leading studio easels and we are confident that the ones you will find on our website will be sturdy and long-lasting.
https://www.jacksonsart.com/studio/easels/studio-easels
A crank handle can make adjusting the height a lot easier, if you are continually needing to do this…those without a crank handle or a mechanised function will have a ratchet system. I have had my Mabef studio easel for well over 10 years and this has a ratchet to adjust the height of the easel, and works perfectly well (and I do tend to adjust the height of the easel several times each painting session).
The prices vary wildly, from around £100 up to thousands, and it tends to be dependent on the size of the easel and the mechanism of how it is adjusted.
Hope this helps
Lisa
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