109 Inch Elite B2 Stretcher Bar 1-1/2" Deep #B2-109

Elite™ Professional 1.5" Deep B2 Bar • 1/2" Canvas Clearance

A Canvas Clearance of 1/2" is the space between the Bar and the canvas. Generally speaking, more clearance reduces the risk of the canvas touching the wood and creating unsightly lines during painting. Our design provides the optimal clearance so as not to impact your painting, but still leaving enough wood to the maximize strength of the Stretcher Bar.

Finger Jointed Wood is not meant for Stretcher Bars

Solid wood makes the most dependable Stretcher Bar, because one homogeneous wood member is going to behave similarly across the entire length of the Bar. Whereas, with finger-jointed wood is made-up of multiple pieces of wood, sometimes on the actual joint itself, presenting multiple points of failure which no one can control.

We only use Solid Wood to build our Stretcher Bars because a solid piece of wood will last indefinitely. When we speak of archival value, it's not just the paint you use and the quality of your canvas and ground, even the wood choices manufacturers add or reduce value to your final painting. The fact is, you don't want problems, and finger joints only increase that risk of the wood falling apart in the future.

The glue used to bind finger joints is a water based adhesive and when that wood is exposed to high humidity environments, particularly with exterior walls, the glue joints can give-up. As a manufacturer, Masterpiece® does its part to conserve as much wood as possible, and still provide a quality product that will out-perform any other in the marketplace.

What is Sustainable Forestry?

To a forester, the term "sustainable" could mean exercising industry adopted forestry practices to maintain a forest indefinitely. To a logger, the process of proper care for the trees remaining after a harvest. To a landowner, their interest may lie in keeping their forest in the family. And to those of involved in the process of making and using wood-based art supplies, it can mean promoting and supporting an industry dedicated to the preservation of our precious natural resource. We can all do our part to care for our national forests.

Canvas Size Needed for this Stretcher Bar

Most artists will stretch the canvas and attach the staples or tacks onto the back side of the frame. Doing so allows you to paint on the edge and hang your art without needed a picture frame. Generally speaking, you should allow 6 Inches of canvas beyond the size of your frame.

For example, if you were to stretch a 63x109 frame size, which happens to be a Ã3:1 Dynamic Root-3 Rectangle aspect ratio size, your canvas should be about 6 x 115. This allows you ample room to stretch and attach the canvas on the back. Should you ever need to remove the canvas from the frame and re-attach it, it still serves that purpose too. Should you want to attach the canvas from the edge of the stretcher frame, then you can reduce the size of your canvas about 3/4" all the way around the frame.

Oversize Box

This item is classified by UPS and Fedex as oversized, which might incur slightly higher shipping charges. To mitigate the shipping cost, we recommend ordering in quantities of 2 or 4 or more, and it travels safer too.

Rooted in California and flourishing since 1965, Masterpiece® takes pride in its family-led legacy of crafting North America's premier Stretcher Bars. Our quest for excellence isn't just a goal but a commitment, positioning us as the trailblazers in the domain of fine-art canvas. Our innovative patents have set new benchmarks, ensuring our offerings stand unmatched. Dive into the tactile experience of our products, and you'll instantly recognize the distinct Masterpiece® quality, a signature appreciated by both your clientele and future art connoisseurs.

To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers. ♦ Paul Klee

Paul Klee's perspective offers a profound insight into the complexities and dimensions of art. Just as a mathematical system that acknowledges only positive numbers lacks depth and balance, so does an art that highlights solely the beautiful. Klee, with his experimental techniques and varied styles, was no stranger to the multifaceted nature of aesthetics and emotion.

His analogy beckons us to recognize that beauty, while enchanting, is but one facet of a vast spectrum of emotions and experiences. Art is a mirror to life, and life is not always beautiful; it's sometimes raw, turbulent, and challenging. For artists, confronting the entirety of experience Ð the shadows alongside the light Ð gives our work authenticity and depth. By embracing the spectrum of emotions and experiences, we give voice to the silent narratives, the unspoken tales, and the overlooked perspectives. In doing so, we create art that not only reflects the world around us but also the myriad emotions within us.

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We hope you will be inspired by the wisdom, and our interpretation thereof, of Paul Klee, plus we made this unique little portrait to begin the creative process. Time to start your creative process!

Tight'n'Up™ Liquid Canvas Retensioner

One of our most celebrated products helps make your canvas tighter! Assembling Stretcher Bars and Stretching your own canvas can present some challenges. While your canvas may seem tightly stretched, the tension may vary from staple to staple creating lines of tension across the canvas in a grid like pattern. The trick is to maintain balanced tension across the canvas.

Tight'n'Up™ Liquid Canvas Re-Tensioner is a great way to redistribute the tension in a canvas across that grid-like pattern of tension as well as increase the tension on the entire canvas. While you can can add tension by keying-out the corners of the frame, it may produce an hour-glass effect by expanding the frame in the corners, and not the center.

With Tight'n'Up™, you can add tension to just a small area, or a large area. Simply spray it lightly on the back and brush it into the canvas, and within seconds, your canvas becomes tighter and stays tighter. The more you use, the tighter it gets. Recommended for acrylic primed cotton or linen canvas. We do not recommend it for oil primed canvas because there are simply too many different types of oil primed canvas, but used conservatively at your own risk, it will tension any canvas.