30x48 3D Pro Monterey Canvas 3-1/2" #TM-3048

True Golden Mean Proportion - 30x48 Size

This 30x48 size is one of our Golden Mean sizes, considered the most pleasing shape to the eye!

The Golden Ratio, also known as the Golden Mean or Divine Proportion, is considered the most aesthetically pleasing proportion to the human eye. This proportion has been used in art and architecture for thousands of years, and countless examples can be found in nature, plant life, galaxies, and the human body. The Golden Mean can also be used as a guide to arrange your subjects on the canvas in concert with other Golden Mean shapes like an ellipse, star, triangle, and spiral, resulting in intriguing compositions. Many famous artists, such as Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Mondrian, Botticelli, Dali, and Seurat, have used this proportion in their art, and many contemporary artists continue to use it exclusively. The Golden Ratio can even produce some mathematically intriguing relationships that relate directly to art, architecture, science, and human intrigue. If you're looking for a challenge and inspiration, consider using a canvas in the proportion of the Golden Mean to create a composition that will come alive in the most intriguing ways!

Explore other sizes in this same 8:5 aspect ratio:

7x11 • 10x16 • 12x19 • 15x24 • 18x29 • 20x32 • 23x37 • 28x45 • 31x50 • 33x53 • 36x58 • 39x63 • 46x74

Explore Related Products to this 30x48 Size:

• Acrylic Primed Cotton: Carmel™ • Tahoe™ • Heavy Weight 14oz cotton • Sierra™
• Acrylic Primed Linen: Muir™ • Vintage L22U™
• Alkyd / Oil Primed Linen: Malibu™ • Vintage L21C™
• Vincent™ Pro 7/8 • Monet™ Pro 1.5 • 3D™ Pro 2.5

Monterey™ 7oz Acrylic Primed Cotton

An all-around great canvas, extraordinary value, and our top selling canvas surface across all our products. It is our premium quality all-purpose canvas suitable for most all techniques.

• 100% Cotton 7 oz.; Primed Weight 10.5 oz. per square yard
• Medium Weight, Medium Weave, Medium Texture
• 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

3D™ Pro 3.5 Stretcher 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.

• Produces a 3.5" deep stretched canvas (Actual depth is slightly thinner)
• 1.25" 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.

30x48 3.5" Deep Edge Heavy Frame Offers Maximum Support!

• Drawing depicts the exact frame construction, not the proportion
• 3.5" Deep Edge K3 Heavy Stretcher Bars are precision machined with a unique double tongue-and-groove corner joint that provides rock-solid torsional rigidity that resists warping or twisting, which is an important benefit for such a deep edge canvas
• One super strong 3/4" thick keyable brace and one cross brace (all 3.25" wide) provide the maximum possible support for this 30x48 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 3D™ Pro 3.5 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

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.

Sustainably Managed Forests Inhale and Exhale

The world's forests are essential to human survival. Forests inhale carbon dioxide for the earth, and exhale oxygen essential for life. When we speak of the sustainable forest strategy of ensuring that more timber will exist in the same forest land than exists today, this is the only viable plan for the future of humanity. For this reason, we use only lumber from the sustainable forests of Oregon, Washington, and California, where thereÕs more standing timber today than last century!

Specially Dried and Heat Treated Lumber

We source our wood from a select group of top-tier environmentally conscious lumber mills in the Pacific Northwest. These mills specially dry and heat-treat the lumber to our specifications, resulting in about half the moisture content compared to wood from typical home improvement centers or lumber yards. This process makes the wood stronger, reducing the likelihood of cracking, splitting, or warping. While the wood we use comes at a higher cost, it ensures a more dimensionally stable end product. This stability is crucial for crafting fine professional canvases that support your invaluable art over time.

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

Simply touch one of these impressive canvases and the quality of our materials, workmanship, and design will be immediately obvious to you, and to those who will ultimately acquire your art. The canvas you select becomes the foundation of your painting. Your reputation depends upon the quality of your artwork and the integrity of your material choices. Savvy art buyers and art enthusiasts place a higher value on artwork made with quality materials because they expect their investment in your art will last hundreds, if not a thousand years. Using quality paints and a well-made canvas is an investment in your legacy and your brand.

Do not be afraid of big effects, but..remember the sunlight is never as glaring as it looks and never as dark as you feel it to be. ♦ John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent, renowned for his brilliant portraiture and evocative use of light, has always had a distinct understanding of the world of color and shadow. His works, characterized by their lifelike representation, stem from his precise observation and meticulous study of the interplay of light. This quote, a testament to his deep grasp of the subject, serves as a metaphorical guide to artists and their ever-evolving relationship with their work.

It's easy for us to be drawn towards the grand and dramatic, to magnify our perceptions and let them overshadow the subtleties. Yet, as artists, we should remember that there's a delicate equilibrium to be found, a balance between the extremes of light and dark. Sargent urges us to trust our instincts and insights, emphasizing that what might appear too bold or too subtle in our minds might not be the reality on our canvas. Artistic expression is about capturing the nuances, and it's in these nuances that we truly connect with our audience. By trusting ourselves and our unique perspectives, we ensure that our art remains authentic and relatable.

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With a nod to John Singer Sargent, we present these words of wisdom and our own custom crafted portrait. Let this fusion stoke your creative fires. Dive into your art!

Tight'n'Up™ Liquid Canvas Retensioner

While all of our Masterpiece® Pro canvases are stretched very tightly and our frames have a built-in method to increase tension, we have another method to add canvas tension. Tight'n'Up™ Liquid Canvas Retensioner (sold separately) can be sprayed on the back of a canvas to repair most canvas tension issues.

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.