MabefFolding Easel with Shelf Brackets (MBM-27),Brown

I am very pleased with this style of easel. It is sturdy. Your artwork is held stable, not moving as you paint. Your palette or pochade box sits well on the shelve brackets. And I'm pleased with the quality of Mabef. I previously had the easel style where your pochade box balances precariously on top of the tripod and your artwork is held by the pochade box, which for me is too unstable and moves as you paint.

If I had a choice, I would give it a zero rating! It has been the most painful and uncomfortable easel I've ever used. The legs do not stay in place after it's been tightened and the front legs are so far out that it's impossible to sit or stand in front of the easel to paint comfortably. The shelf bracket is so useless that it doesn't hold anything and it sits slanted! After the middle adjuster is tighten for all 3 legs to almost stand up, it's in the way so you can hardly fit the canvass in the grooves of the bottom holders. I wish I was able to return it, but you only get a short period of time before you can return it. Very disappointed and annoyed that I spent the money on this useless easel! Is Mabef the best? This piece is hardly worth the time and money! 8/17/2024 An update with this easel: Alas! I can only use it for canvases that is not more than 1 inch thick!!! =(

The box had already been opened and then taped shut. The Mabef seal sticker was broken. The easel came completely assembled, and it appears to be in good shape. I am missing one wingnut. Assembly/setup was easy. I’m excited to see if it will be able to replace a French box easel I have. Good price. The finish work wasn’t as high quality as I’d thought. Nothing substantial, just would slivers on the machined edges where the saw/router blades exited. A little sandpaper will take care of that well enough. Not a big deal.

I'm a pastelist and have the mini version of this easel which I love. This one doesn't work for me at all. Because its bigger, its unwieldy to set up and takes forever to balance. That could probably be dealt with by marking the legs to show how and where to tighten them once you do find a good way to set it up. I also found it very difficult to tighten in my board, having to push up from the bottom rather than down from the top (but I may have been doing something wrong). The worst part though is that the two arms that are supposed to hold a palette slant upwards so much that not only do things roll off but I have difficulty reaching the farthest pastel sticks. That I have not figured out a way to deal with so basically the easel is useless for my purposes. I recommend paying a bit more and getting the mini version which is not only easier to use despite having more pieces but unfolds to full height as well as folding down small enough to fit in carry on luggage.

as light weight as any metal easel and looks a whole lot better. The arms that attach to them legs are easy to adjust (I put some velcro on the their top surface located to match velcro on the bottom of my John Pike palette so the palette would stay put) Only thing I don't like is that the clamp legs on the ends of the stretcher holder (the thing that holds your painting in place) are too deep (made for stretched canvas) for a thin board used to mount watercolor paper; they get in the way of painting on the lower area of the paper.

This is a great easel for outdoor painting. I have 3 different outdoor painting rigs one of which costed $500, which I still use, but the Mabef Field Painting Easel M-27 is the easel I've come to use the most. It's light weight, easy to set up and sturdy.

Very complicated to set up!Poor directions.It took 6 professional plein aire artists to figure it out!!!And ... it is wobbly!!!!

Much studie than I expected for something so light to carry.

I like the style of easel with support arms a lot! However, it arrived pre assembled (which leads me to believe that I paid full and hefty price for a previously returned item… not good business practice), and missing one lugnut and washer to secure the block of wood that holds up the canvas. The easel box arrived battered and punctured and was not secured inside of an enclosing shipping box. Delivery date changed a few days after ordering and was extended by one week. In summary, this is an expensive, but decent quality, easel that is not immediately useable upon receipt (waiting to hear back from Mabef to get a metric lugnut).