stretching it

Good questions in the comments today. I think I will answer those out front.

Jesse said...It's an interesting method. It's been a LONG time since I've painted on stretched canvas (15 yrs?) but I seem to remember it taking a long time. It added time since I stretched unprimed, and then went through the priming process. How long does it take you to assemble the stretchers and attached the primed canvas?

I can stretch a 24 by 30 in about ten minutes. I often meet students who have never learned to stretch a canvas, there is really no big deal to it, and what are you going to do with all of those stretchers behind the paintings that don't work out, throw them away?

Deb said...Why not linen panels, Stape?
And Cynthia, I've used that method many times and works fine.
Stape, how do you cut out the linen in the first place? Do you try to square it at all, or just cut a bit swatch larger than the painting size?

I don't want to pay that much for panels, the big ones are expensive, the little ones are OK but I can rapidly stretch up a canvas with good materials for less. To cut it I lay the stretcher, assembled, on top of the canvas rolled out flat on the floor, I draw a line about four inches out from them and cut it with a scissors.

Prairie painter said...I am wondering about priming the canvas. Do you do this before you head out on your trip so it is ready to go? or do you buy pre-primed? How much priming do you do anyway? I get confused about the different recommendations when using oil. Canvases will come primed, but then one is recommended to put on some more.

I always buy preprimed canvas, I am busy enough without priming my own canvas. I very rarely paint on acrylic primers or acrylic gesso. I see no reason to add more primer to a preprimed canvas. I am not too hard to please, I don't obsess over the materials, I just need professional quality. I have been using a very inexpensive oil primed linen called centurion, sold by Jerry's. I haven't even used a whole roll yet so I can't endorse it, bnut it seems to be fine, particularly considering it's price. Maybe I will discovered some big problem with it, but so far it is OK. It is a little thin.

I went to a great show today at the Amon Carter Museum of Hudson River school paintings. There were many important canvasses in the show, really the best examples of the finest painters of the period. Including a great Moran of the Snake River, Asher B. Durands "Kindred Spirits" that I recently showed on this blog and Coles "Course of Empire". The admission was FREE, thanks Amon!

One of the guards repeatedly told me I was getting too close to the paintings. I always fold my arms when I lean in to examine a painter's handling, to show that I won't touch them, and the paintings were all under nearly invisible museum glass. I found that really annoying, as a painter it is essential to look closely at a painters worksmanship.

The catalog was sold out but I was able to order one and have it sent home. It appears to be excellent, they had a copy to look at on the benches in the exhibit.

The Carter has a great collection, all of American painting,they are particularly strong in Remoingtons and Russells. There was a time when most of the museums in America were free or had very low admission prices. They were thought of the same way as a library, purposefully made available to everyone. Today many of the museums are pushing towards twenty dollar ticket prices. When I was an art student, museum restaurants were often cafeteria style located in the basement and affordable. Today they are upscale elite restaurants that exclude by their price and formality all but the elite visitors. But the Carter is free. good fgor them, I hope they will be able to keep it that way. I expect that was a condition that Carter set when he founded the museum, but that was the condition set by the founders of Americas other great museums donors that now charge high admission prices.