54x81 Monet Pro Santa Cruz Canvas 1-1/2" Deep #MZ-5481

True 3:2 Film Proportion - 54x81 Size

The 3:2 aspect ratio is a very familiar format film, computer screens, and video, and, of course, is an aesthetically appealing proportion for your artistic compositions. Most 35 mm film cameras are based on this exact proportion, so our brains are trained to see images in this same ratio. It is commonly used for landscape photography and artwork, as it allows for a wide, panoramic view of the scene. It can be used to create a sense of balance and harmony in the composition, providing depth and perspective, as the longer sides of the canvas allow for more space to depict the background or foreground elements of the scene.

Even though this proportion is widely used, there are only a handful of commonly available standard canvas sizes in this ratio. There are a whole collection of intriguing (what we call) Lost Sizes, which are uncommon sizes in this common proportion. Unusual canvas sizes add intrigue to your artwork and an additional story to tell about your painting.

Explore other sizes in this same 3:2 aspect ratio:

4x6 • 6x9 • 8x12 • 10x15 • 12x18 • 14x21 • 16x24 • 18x27 • 20x30 • 22x33 • 24x36 • 26x39 • 28x42 • 30x45 • 32x48 • 34x51 • 36x54 • 38x57 • 40x60 • 42x63 • 44x66 • 46x69 • 48x72 • 50x75 • 52x78 • 56x84 • 58x87 • 60x90 • 62x93 • 64x96 • 78x117

Explore Related Products to this 54x81 Size:

• Acrylic Primed Linen: Muir™ • Vintage L22U™ • Saint-Cloud™ • Grenoble™ • Pau™
• Acrylic Primed Cotton: Monterey™ • Carmel™ • Tahoe™ • Sausalito™ • Sierra™ • Shasta™
• Alkyd / Oil Primed Linen: Malibu™ • Vintage L21C™ • Ventura™ • Versailles™ • Isola™ • Poitiers™
• 3D™ Pro 2.5

Santa Cruz™ Acrylic Primed Belgian Linen

This strong and fine weave linen has more of an even tooth is a great all-around great quality painting surface. It has a bright white tone.

• 100% Belgian Linen 7 oz.; Primed Weight 11.3 oz. per square yard
• Medium Heavy Weight, Fine Weave, Fine Texture
• Double Sized and Double Primed with acid-free archival quality acrylic gesso
• Impenetrable ground prevents oil paint from leaching through and harming the canvas
• For acrylics, oils, alkyds, and water miscible oil paints
• Linen has natural oils that prevent disintegration over time.

Vegan Ground:

There are no animal products that make-up the sizing and the primer for this fine canvas. Historically, traditional canvas grounds have included egg tempura, pigments with cow urine, and of course, rabbit skin glue. In today's rapidly advancing world, there are many more choices available for artists who prefer non-animal based products that perform far better than their animal-based predecessors.

Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) Primer Pigment

This primer contains premium-grade Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) white pigment, renowned for its exceptional performance in acrylic priming. Its standout feature is its enduring whiteness, coupled with remarkable flexibility that persists over time. In contrast to other pigments such as zinc dioxide, Titanium Dioxide maintains its resilience, preventing brittleness as it ages. This quality ensures that artworks retain their integrity and will stand the test of time.

Monet™ Pro 1.5" Deep B2 Bar • 1/2" Canvas Clearance

1/2" Canvas Clearance 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.

• Super strong B2™ Stretcher Bar upgrade is 50% stronger
• For this 54x81 large size frame, this upgrade adds more strength and stability
• Produces a 1.5" deep stretched canvas
• 2-1/4" wide Stretcher Bar
• All Bars have an exclusive groove on the inside perimeter of the frame to which cross braces and Diamond Corner Braces attach
• Solid Ponderosa Pine or Fir from the Pacific Northwest

No Finger Joints!

Solid Wood is far superior to finger jointed wood, which is many small pieces glued together, each with varying grain densities that absorb and shed moisture at varying rates, expanding and contracting non-uniformly as environmental conditions change, and causing the wood to bow and the finger joints to eventually fail.

A single homogeneous kiln-dried solid wood Stretcher Bar outperforms and outlasts a finger jointed Bar whose sole purpose is to save the manufacturer cost, not contribute to the archival value of artwork intended to last a millennium. 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.

54x81 Monet Pro Super Heavy Frame with Steel Corners Provides the Ultimate Support!

• Drawing depicts the exact frame construction, not the proportion
• Extra Heavy 2-1/4" wide Stretcher Bars, 1.5" deep - 50% stronger than our normal Bars they provide vastly superior frame strength needed for this large 54x81 size
• Each corner has a 1/4" thick triangular steel plate and a diagonal oriented Diamond Brace that interlocks with the Stretcher Bars and provides maximum support and rigidity to help keep the frame square and flat
• Two super strong 3/4" thick keyable braces and two cross braces (all 3.25" wide) provide the maximum possible support for this 54x81 frame; Cross Braces are permanently installed in the frame, but canvas tension may be increased by tapping-in the keys or wedges that slightly expand the size of the frame
• The Stretcher Bars have an proprietary utility groove on the inside perimeter of the frame which is used to attach braces and other optional frame supports
• The Masterpiece braces feature an exclusive system that allows you to increase the tension to the middle of the frame, where the tension is needed the most; it's so unique it earned us a patent!
• Our state-of-the-art cross braces attach the ends of the cross braces into the (grooved) sides of the braces, which creates a superior and robust system of interlocking cross braces
• To increase canvas tension: 1) remove any staples in the corners and those that retain the brace keys in the middle, 2) tap all of the expansion keys further into their respective slots, 3) tighten and re-staple the canvas in the corners

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 Monet™ Pro 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", 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

Steel Corners and Diamond Braces Increase Rigidity for this 54x81 Size

For our larger size Monet Pro frames, like this 54x81 size, we use 1/4" painted steel and diagonal Diamond wood braces for unprecedented frame rigidity and strength. The triangular steel plates are inserted into the groove on the inside perimeter of the Stretcher Bar and improve torsional strength to help keep the frame flat.

The diagonal Diamond wood braces lock the corners and the steel plate in place and help keep the frame square. Together, these two features contribute to producing the finest and strongest 1.5" deep canvas on the market.

Incidentally, this feature is not offered for our 3D Pro™ Canvases because it is simply not required for the double tongue-and-groove corner joints of 3D Pro™ that provide adequate torsional strength for those 2.5" and 3.5" deep frames.

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 a canvas is stretched 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.

Sustainable Forests - A Precious Natural Resource

The air that we breathe depends upon our healthy forests the world over. For this reason, we only use lumber from the sustainable forests of the Pacific Northwest, so we can guarantee that our nation's precious natural timber resources are available for future generations.

Specially Dried and Heat Treated Lumber

Our wood is handpicked from a curated group of environmentally responsible lumber mills in the Pacific Northwest. By adhering to our precise drying and heat-treatment standards, these mills produce lumber with nearly half the moisture you'd find in common home improvement outlets or lumber yards. This meticulous process not only enhances the wood's strength—minimizing risks of cracks, splits, or bends—but also elevates its dimensional stability. Such quality, despite its premium, is paramount in creating professional canvases designed to uphold the sanctity of your cherished art throughout the years.

MuseumWrap™ Stretching Technique

With more than 60 years 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

For more than 60 years, Masterpiece® has been synonymous with top-tier artist canvases in North America. A canvas isn't just fabric; it's an invitation to create, to turn raw talent into timeless art. Choose wisely, for your art's endurance reflects your legacy and brand distinction.

Normality is a paved road: It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. ♦ Vincent Van Gogh

Whose life and art were anything but conventional, Vincent Van Gogh often found beauty in the tumultuous and the misunderstood. His sentiment regarding the allure and limitations of normality sheds light on his intrinsic drive to tread off the well-beaten path. To Van Gogh, the allure of the unknown, with all its struggles and uncertainties, held a beauty that the familiar simply couldn't match. His unconventional path, marked by bouts of passion, despair, and brilliance, was mirrored in his artworks, which often portrayed the raw intensity of nature and human emotion.

It is a powerful reminder for artists everywhere. The easy path, the one most traveled, might offer comfort and predictability, but it's the less-trodden trails that challenge us, pushing us to grow and evolve. Just as flowers find their way through cracks and bloom in the most unexpected places, our creativity often shines brightest when nurtured outside the confines of the ordinary. We are prompted to think differently, to take risks, and to discover new facets of our artistry. The world is vast, filled with infinite possibilities; it beckons us to explore, to step outside our comfort zones, and to let our imaginations roam free.

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Creativity is everything to us artists, so while you bring canvases to life, we've breathed digital life into a likeness we made of Vincent Van Gogh, and provide a quote and context to inspire your art. Together, our creations honor the past, present, and future of artistry. Start spreading some paint around your own canvas!