Most studios do not have room for a hall sized easel, and most painters still want to work big. That is the gap the M04 Plus sits in. It carries the same canvas as Mabef's largest frame, on a single mast and a base 70cm across.

What makes it the Plus is the crank on the tilt. The height has always been crank adjusted on this easel. On the Plus the working angle is too. You turn a handle, the canvas moves, and both hands stay free. No wingnuts, no holding a heavy canvas steady with one arm while you tighten with the other.

Behind that it is a serious frame. Canvases to 235cm and 40kg, a mast that reaches 390cm, four castors with levelling bolts, and a base with a utility tray and two drawers.

Perfect for

What makes the M04 Plus different

The one difference between this and the standard M04

We sell both, so here it is plainly. The M04 and the M04 Plus have the same canvas capacity, the same 40kg load, the same single mast, the same height range and the same footprint. They are the same easel.

The difference is how you set the angle. On the M04 you loosen two large brass wingnuts, move the canvas by hand and tighten them again. On the M04 Plus you turn a crank. That is the whole difference, and the Plus is 3kg heavier for the mechanism.

So the question is not which easel is better built. It is whether you change the angle often enough for a crank to earn its keep. Plenty of painters set an easel once and leave it, and for them the standard M04 is the right buy. If you tilt the work to kill a glare, or bring the top of a tall canvas forward to reach it, you will use this every session.

Single mast or double mast

The M04 Plus and the M02 Plus take the same canvas and the same load. The difference is the frame under it. The M02 Plus has two masts and a 99cm base, which resists twisting under a very wide canvas and is what academies and conservation studios tend to specify. The M04 Plus has one mast and a 70cm base, 10kg lighter and considerably easier to fit into a room that also has to be a room.

If your canvases are tall rather than enormously wide, and the studio is a spare room or a converted garage, the single mast is usually the better buy. If you regularly work past a metre wide and have the floor, the double mast is stiffer.

Why steam treated beech

Mabef build in solid beech, steam treated before it is worked, then oiled and stain resistant, with brass plated rust proof hardware. On a frame that stands nearly four metres at full extension and carries forty kilograms on a single mast, that stability is not a finishing touch. It is the reason the mast keeps sliding cleanly and the crank keeps turning a decade later.

The oiled finish is the practical half. Paint sits on the surface rather than soaking into the grain, so a wipe keeps it looking like an easel and not a palette.

Specifications

For full details of the Mabef warranty, including how to register your easel, see the Mabef warranty page.

Mabef, and why we carry so much of it

Mabef have been making easels in Italy since 1948 and have never once diversified into anything else. No brushes, no paint, no pencil cases. Just easels, for three quarters of a century, by a family who clearly think about hinges more than is strictly healthy. We find that faintly wonderful, and it shows in the joinery and in the warranty they are willing to put behind it.

Art Shed carries over forty Mabef lines, one of the deepest Mabef ranges in Australia: field easels, studio masts with cranks, lyre easels, sketch boxes, table easels, sculpture trestles, print racks, stools and the full run of beech palettes. Not a token three models and a special order form. If you are building a studio around Mabef, or matching an easel you already own, we almost certainly have the rest of the family in stock.

Getting the most out of your M04 Plus

Level it before the first canvas goes on. Roll it where you want it, then wind the levelling bolts down until it stops rocking. A tall easel finds every dip in an old floor and magnifies it at the top.

Use the crank rather than your back. That is the entire point of this easel. Bring the work to your eye line instead of bending to meet it.

Tilt to kill the glare. A few degrees forward takes the window out of a wet oil surface. On this easel that is a handle turn, so there is no excuse not to.

Wipe the tray while paint is still wet. Oiled beech forgives a great deal, but cured paint around a crank mechanism does not do it any favours.

Then put a two metre canvas on it and work the whole surface without climbing on anything. That is what this easel is for.

Questions about the Mabef M04 Plus Studio Easel