Everyone who has taken pastels outdoors has done the same thing. You set up the easel, you look around for somewhere to put the box, and there is nowhere. So the box goes on the ground, and for the next two hours you are crouching to it every thirty seconds, or it is balanced on a camp chair waiting for the moment it is not.

The Mabef M27 is the field easel with the answer built in. Two folding arms swing out from the mast, with adjustable wooden blocks that clamp a pastel box or a palette where your hand actually goes. When you do not need them, they fold flat against the mast and you are carrying an ordinary field easel again.

Everything else is the field easel you would want anyway. 1.9kg of steam treated Italian beech, canvases up to 115cm, adjustable from 75cm to 185cm, and a canvas holder that pivots to any angle you like from upright to fully flat.

Perfect for

What makes the M27 different

The arms are the entire point, so here is the honest comparison

The M27 and the M29 Basic are the same easel. Same 115cm canvas, same 4kg load, same maximum height, same wing nut, same beech. The M27 has the arms and weighs 300 grams more. That is the whole difference and we would rather tell you than let you work it out afterwards.

So the decision is simple. If you work in pastel, or you paint holding a palette and are tired of nowhere to rest it, the M27 is worth every cent of the step up. If you work in watercolour from a small pan set, or you paint with a palette in your hand and are happy that way, the M29 does the same job for less money and slightly less weight.

Why steam treated beech

Mabef build in solid beech, steam treated before it is worked, then oiled and stain resistant. Outdoors that matters more than it does indoors, because the wood is going through damp mornings and hot afternoons and back again, week after week. Treated timber has had the movement taken out of it in advance, which is why these easels are still tight years later while cheaper ones develop a lean and a wobble.

The oiled finish is the practical half. Pastel dust and wet paint sit on the surface instead of working into the grain, so a wipe with a rag keeps it presentable.

Specifications

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

Choosing between the Mabef field easels

We stock the range, so here is the short version. The M29 Basic is the entry point. The M27, this easel, is the M29 with the arms. The M28 Universal swaps the wing nut for a hand lever, so angle changes are faster and need no tools, and it is the lightest of the three. The M32 Giant is a different class altogether, twice the canvas capacity, more load, a leather carry handle, and four kilograms to carry.

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 M27

Set it up at home before the first trip. Assembly is simple, but learning where the wing nut and the arm blocks are is much nicer in a lounge room than in a wind.

Press the legs in before you load up. On grass or sand, stand on the spreaders to bed all three feet before the canvas and the box go on.

Set the arms to your box once and leave them. The blocks slide, but there is no reason to reset them every session if you always carry the same box.

Wipe it down before it goes back in the car. Oiled beech forgives a lot, and wet paint left to cure around a wing nut does not do the mechanism any favours.

Then take it somewhere and paint standing up, with the box exactly where your hand expects it. That is the entire argument for this easel over the cheaper one, and it is a good one.

Questions about the Mabef M27 Basic Field Easel