16x20 Elite Isola O/P Heavy Linen 1-1/2" Deep #EI-1620

True 5:4 Photography Proportion - 16x20 Size

The 16x20 size is generally considered the most popular size in art. It doesn't take a lot of wall space, but it provides enough space on the canvas to create detail and made a statement without being too overpowering.

The 5:4 aspect ratio is common to both art and portrait photography, as it creates a visually pleasing format for the human figure and face. The balanced compositional format can help to create a sense of symmetry and harmony in your artwork. The 5:4 ratio has a familiar "feel", as it was commonly used in early computer monitors. Additionally, you might consider trying some relatively unknown sizes in this same proportion that we call Lost Sizes As an artist, you get the best of both worlds, because you still get to use the same aesthetically appealing 5:4 format and use rare or novel sizes that help make your art stand-out.

Explore other sizes in this same 5:4 aspect ratio:

12x15 • 20x25 • 24x30 • 28x35 • 32x40 • 36x45 • 40x50 • 44x55 • 48x60 • 52x65 • 56x70 • 60x75 • 64x80 • 68x85 • 72x90 • 76x95

Explore Related Products to this 16x20 Size:

• Oil Primed Linen Elite™: Poitiers™
• Oil Primed Linen Monet Pro™: Malibu™ • Vintage L21C™ • Ventura™ • Versailles™
• Acrylic Primed Linen Elite™: Grenoble™ • Pau™
• Acrylic Primed Linen Monet Pro™: Muir™ • Vintage L22U™ • Santa Cruz™ • Saint-Cloud™
• Acrylic Primed Cotton Elite™: Shasta™
• 3D™ Pro 2.5

Isola™ Heavy Weight Oil Primed Artfix Linen

Our heaviest weight oil primed linen canvas. Great for large and small works with a very heavy body, yet has a refreshing medium surface tooth.

• 100% Belgian Linen 8.6 oz; Primed Weight 14.1 oz per square yard
• Heavy Weight, Dense Weave, Medium Texture
• Double Sized and Double Primed with acid-free archival quality oil primed ground
• Impenetrable ground prevents oil paint from leaching through and harming the canvas
• For oils, alkyds, and water miscible oil paints
• Linen has natural oils that prevent disintegration over time

Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) Primer Pigment

Our primer is made with the highest-quality Titanium Dioxide white pigment, which is an excellent pigment for acrylic primed grounds, providing superior whiteness and maintaining excellent flexibility over time. Unlike some other common pigments, such as zinc dioxide, TiO₂ doesn't become brittle as it ages, helping to ensure that your painting will stand the test of time.

Oil paint on an oil primed canvas improves your results

Using an oil prepared canvas for oil painting can produce superior results because the paint and ground are organically similar and create an ideal "chemical bond" where the paint sinks into the ground resulting in a smoother and more even finish. The resulting bond between the paint and canvas is stronger, making the artwork more durable and long-lasting. Additionally, the melding of the two oil-based materials creates an effect called luminosity, where the colors appear to glow from within, and thereby enhances the vibrancy and brightness of the colors, impacting the way light reflects off the colors.

Flash an Oil Prepared Canvas with Mineral Spirits

While it is not required, for best results, lightly wipe or flash the oil prepared canvas with mineral spirits before painting to make sure that your surface is completely clean of any dust or contaminants before painting.

16x20 Frame Kit B2 Super Heavy Frame Offers the Ultimate Canvas Support!

• Drawing depicts the exact frame construction, not the proportion
• Precision Machined keyable Super Strong Stretcher Bars (1.5" deep by 2-1/4" wide) allow you to increase the canvas tension
• Super Strong Keyable Brace (3/4" x 3.25") and a regular Cross Brace Included
• The Bars have a clever utility groove on the inside perimeter of the frame to attach the cross braces
• Unique Keyable Cross Braces allow you to tension the canvas in the middle, where it's needed the most
• Cross braces are glued and stapled at the 'cross' for maximum support and rigidity
• Both corner keys and brace keys are pre-installed

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.

Cross Braces Make it Tighter

A tightly stretched canvas on an un-braced frame overpowers the Stretcher Bars causing them to bow inward and thereby lose tension. Sometimes that bow can expose a space in picture frames.

When we stretch a canvas on a properly supported frame, the cross-braces prevent the Bars from bowing thereby achieving maximum canvas tension. To increase the canvas tension even more, simply tap the corner and brace keys further in their slots. Properly supported frames provide you with the control over the canvas tension of your canvas and painting.

Forests need People, and People Need Forests

The concept of sustainability presupposes a comprehensive engagement of individuals in the art and science of forest stewardship, both in the present and for the well-being of generations to come. Humanity undoubtedly extracts wood from forests to supplement our needs, but they also play a crucial role in bestowing diligent care upon these ecosystems. This stewardship encompasses not only the responsible harvesting of forest resources but also extends to the safeguarding of clean water sources, the preservation of wildlife and their native habitats, and the mitigation of potential threats like erosion, fires, and diseases that could otherwise lead to untimely degradation of these precious woodlands.

Masterpiece® uses only lumber harvested from responsibly and sustainably managed timberlands.

Canvas Tension is in Your Control

In dry climates or air conditioned environments, the lack of moisture in the air causes wood frames to shrink and the canvas fibers to narrow and elongate making the canvas more slack and resulting in a loss of canvas tension. In some instances, the canvas could have waves on the surface resulting in an unsightly viewing experience.

Our Elite™ professional frames provide the functionality for you to slightly expand the size of the frame in the corners and the middle of the canvas, thereby increasing canvas tension all across the surface. The difference between a loose canvas and a tight canvas is just 1/8" of an inch, so a small adjustment using our corner and brace keys makes an important difference in canvas tension.

• Helps to prevent waves that occur in a loose canvas
• Increase canvas tension by tapping-in the corner and brace keys
• True professional class canvases make it possible for you to adjust the canvas tension

MuseumWrap™ Stretching Technique

With more than a half a century of American engineering, Masterpiece® designs and builds its own proprietary stretching equipment that enables us to produce the finest and most tightly-stretched canvas on the market.

• Drum-tight stretch!
• Up to 50% tighter than other methods
• Balanced tension across the surface
• Uncut folded corners make it possible to remove and re-stretch canvas on the same size frame
• Usually the corner folds are on the long sides

Every artist's journey to greatness starts with a blank canvas. Since 1965, Masterpiece® has been the trusted companion in that journey, offering the finest canvases in North America. Your creativity, combined with our canvas, has the potential to turn into a priceless treasure. The choices you make today pave the way for tomorrow's legacy.

With one eye you are looking at the outside world, while with the other you are looking within yourself. ♦ Amadeo Modigliani

Amadeo Modigliani's insights into the dual nature of an artist's gaze are both profound and illuminating. The Italian virtuoso, renowned for his distinctive portraits and elongated forms, recognized that the true essence of art is not just capturing external beauty but also the introspection and self-reflection that accompanies creation. It's a dance between the world and the artist's internal realm.

Artists constantly negotiate this duality, synthesizing external observations with their inner emotions and thoughts. The beauty of a sunset or the contours of a face are not merely rendered as seen; they are intertwined with the artist's feelings, memories, and dreams. In the dance between the external and internal, artists find a unique voice, a personal style, and an expressive depth. By embracing this dance, we can elevate our work, making it both a reflection of the world around us and a window into our soul.

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Art is visual and ripe with meaning, so enjoy this quote and our interpretation of its meaning, plus an one-of-a-kind portrait we created of Amadeo Modigliani to make it all the more relevant. Pick up that brush and go!