Whether you are buying a display easel, an artist easel or a presentation easel, you can expand its usefulness with easel accessories. Many accessories are designed to fit onto any style of easel, regardless of make or model. If you feel like something is lacking on your easel, take a quick look at these five tips and see if you can find the right accessory for you.

1) Do you have a favorite painting displayed on an easel, but can only appreciate it when the light is just right? Are you forever adjusting a floor lamp to shed light on a painting you're working on? If lighting is a problem, then look into easel lights. These can be clamped on to any easel and adjusted to position the light where you want it.

2) Many artist easels will only accommodate canvases of up to 43 or 48 inches. If you get the urge to paint on a larger canvas, there are easel accessories for this purpose. Easel extensions mount on top of the easel and add those extra inches of support for your large canvases.

3) What do you do with your palette, palette knives and brushes when you work? Many artists buy work tables that attach directly to their easels for easy access. These easel accessories can even swivel out of the way when they're not needed. These work tables make painting much more enjoyable, allowing you to concentrate on your work instead of constantly turning away to get to a pallet on a table or holding it in your free hand.

4) Did you buy a simple portable presentation easel and then kick yourself for not buying one with a flip chart holder? Don't worry: there are easel accessories for these. When mounted on top of an easel, these flip chart bars are a low cost way to greatly improve your presentation options.

5) Turn a simple tripod easel into a multi-purpose presentation easel with dual sided whiteboards and marker trays. You can even get magnetized whiteboards for even greater options. When combined with other accessories like flip chart holders, you can have a fully featured presentation easel when you need it and convert your easel into a display easel when it is not being used in a presentation.

These are just some of the easel accessories that you can add on as you need them to enhance the usefulness of your easel. Others include a variety of boards that can easily be mounted on your easel. The same easel that you use for presentations can be used by the kids at home if it has telescoping legs. Just buy them a chalkboard and fasten it to the easel.

Ever since easels were invented, users have been inventing easel accessories to expand their capabilities. If there is anything that is lacking on your easel, there is sure to be an accessory to take care of the problem.