Stretching Pre-Primed Canvas

Carol Norton · 07-30-2005, 10:13 PM

Juan, thank you , thank you, THANK YOU. I had planned to glue the canvas to masonite instead of stretching it. HOWEVER, its size seemed a bit too large to do that (17 " x 18 ") and the buyer is older (hmph..not too old!) and conservative. (a retired cop and his wife). It was recommended that the conventional canvas would be more easily accepted by the "Commish". And (...drum roll...) it WAS. I was so very concerned that the belated stretching would be a problem, that your post was a real relief as I didn't want to do it OVER. The canvas was taut and evenly stretched as my helpful husband helped while I "supervised". I thought it looked perfect and the "Commish" loved it. It looks as though I may be doing a number of other police officers from the same area. As an outcropping of this, I find that I would enjoy doing a series about officers in their work environment. (showing the brotherhood so frequently portrayed in the fire fighter genre).

Thank you again. I am seriously enjoying your articles in International Artist on drawing.

Carol

Juan Martinez · 07-31-2005, 10:37 AM

Carol,

You're most welcome, and thank you for the compliments on my articles.

Best of luck with your "Boys, and Girls, in Blue" series.

Juan

Linda Brandon · 07-31-2005, 11:12 AM

Hi Juan,

I don't use too much pressure when I glue my panels to my completed paintings; I just throw on some big art books. My paintings are neither super-smooth nor super-chunky so I don't see scratching of varnish or flattening of impasto. (I use Gamvar varnish with some wax medium to dull the shine a litte, maybe this helps?)

Primed linen taped to a board is great for open studio settings. I am really picky about placement on paintings and I get upset at myself when I'm off an inch or so. I can recrop later to a square, oval, horizontal format, even a circle if I feel like it later on.

I have a closet full of rolled up paintings on linen. How old is too old to stretch, do you think?

(And I love your IA series, too!)

Juan Martinez · 08-04-2005, 10:51 AM

Thanks, Linda. Yes, I guess that care and moderation are what counts in gluing-after-the-fact. Like you, I am fussy about placement, and I have taken table-saw-to-panel quite a few times,well after a painting is finished and varnished, and am about to again. In this recent case, I have, in fact, removed the varnish but that is because I am repainting a bunch of stuff, but that's another story.

Juan