Question: One of my biggest personal painting struggles is my tendency to tighten up and lose spontaneity. I would like to try painting on unstretched canvas and/or gessoed paper to save money and help the gestural aspect of my work. On page 27 of your book you talk about painting on unstretched canvas. If the painting is a keeper, how do you handle this? Does one glue it to a masonite panel? If so what type of glue? – Robin
Answer: Whenever I talk about painting on unstretched canvas, I am inevitably asked this question. What do you do if you want to frame it? It may come as a surprise that a painting done on unstretched canvas can be stretched later. It can also be mounted to a panel or matted. For the benefit of those who may not have heard of painting on unstretched canvas, I’ll first outline the advantages; then I’ll discuss the various presentation options.
Note: Unstretched canvas does not mean unprimed! When I mention “unstretched” canvas, it means pre-primed canvas. My preferred brand is Fredrix.
THE ADVANTAGES OF PAINTING ON UNSTRETCHED CANVAS OR PAPER
Freedom. There is a certain preciousness about stretched canvas. You may have taken considerable time and effort to prepare the canvas or, if you bought it ready-made, spent a sizable sum. A pristine stretched canvas can be intimidating. It says, “You’d better not mess this up!” You may not want to commit to the trouble and expense of stretched canvas until you know the painting is working out. Unstretched canvas (or gessoed paper) is, by comparison, very low cost. As Robin’s question suggests, working on an inexpensive and “unprecious” surface may encourage you to be freer and more experimental.
Portability. Stretched canvases can be cumbersome, especially for plein air painters who must travel light. When I paint outdoors, I carry around several pieces of gessoed paper and unstretched canvas in an envelope. I simply tape the individual pieces to a lightweight panel. It adds almost no weight to my pack.
PAINTING ON CANVAS THAT IS TO BE STRETCHED LATER
If you plan to stretch the canvas later, be sure to leave 1.5 – 2 inches of extra canvas around the image area to wrap around the stretcher bars. (See below.) Also be sure to measure your work in increments of whole inches, so it will conform to the standard sizes of stretcher bars.
FRAMING OPTIONS FOR PAINTINGS DONE ON UNSTRETCHED CANVAS OR GESSOED PAPER
1. Stretching the canvas after the painting is finished. Stretching the canvas after the painting is finished is certainly possible, but it’s not easy. I don’t recommend doing yourself unless you are very skilled at stretching canvases. If budget permits, I recommend taking it to professional framer. If you do want to do it yourself, here are some guidelines.
- You do not have to stretch pre-primed canvas as much as you would unprimed canvas. You only need to stretch it enough to make it gently taut, enough that the canvas has no buckles or ripples. That said, stretching pre-primed canvas is definitely harder than stretching unprimed canvas. Pre-primed canvas has much less give.
- Even if you have the tools and the strength to stretch the hell out of the pre-primed canvas, don’t. Although oil paint does have some flexibility, there is a point at which you could potentially damage or crack the paint layers, especially if the painting has been drying for several years.
- A painting that is being stretched undergoes lots of handling, so you must take extra care not to damage the surface of the painting in the process.
2. Mat the painting. If you like the look of a mat or liner around your painting, there is no reason you can’t mat a painting done on paper or unstretched canvas. A small piece of canvas will lie very flat under a mat. A larger piece may not lie as flat, in which case mounting or stretching may be called for.
3. Mount the painting. You can mount canvas or gessoed paper to a panel or mat board. Like stretching a painting, mounting can be tricky. It requires a lot of skill and must be done right if it is to remain flat (unwarped) and be truly archival. I recommend taking it to a professional framer, who knows how to do and has all the necessary tools. Complete step-by-step instructions for mounting are beyond the scope of this article, but if you are interested in doing it yourself, here a few points to be aware of. Also see the comments and suggestions by readers below. As with any studio technique you are trying for the first time, don’t try it on your “precious” painting. Always experiment on scrap canvas or paper first.
- Use an archival glue intended for mounting such as Yes Stikflat Glue or Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA). See Gerry’s comments below about stabilized PVA and shelf life.
- Before mounting paper, seal the back side of the painting with a coat of gesso. Tape the painting facedown on a clean surface before gessoing. This will to allow it to dry flat without any buckling. Canvas does not need to be gessoed on the back.
- Proper mounting requires complete adhesion. You must use enough glue to form complete contact between the back of the painting and the panel, and spread the glue very evenly using some type of spatula. Too little glue may result in areas that don’t fully adhere, trapping air beneath the surface of the painting. (See David Dwyer’s concise and cogent comments below, which explain the basic method.)
- Proper mounting produces a completely flat panel without any warping. Immediately after glueing the painting to the panel, it must dry flat under significant pressure, and be allowed to dry completely (approximately 24 hours). Full adhesion and drying under pressure are the keys to a panel that will dry completely flat.
- Mount onto good quality material. I have found the masonite available at lumberyards to be very poor quality for art purposes. The pieces are very often warped. I recommend spending a few extra dollars for an artist-grade panel, like those from Ampersand.
Mitch, I have been mounting unstretched canvas paintings to hardboard for a couple of years, now. Seems to work very well, at least so far. I seal the hardboard panel with GAC 100 and gesso both sides. The mounting side receives asecond coat of gesso and the canvas is applied while the gesso is still wet. These are small pieces (8 x 10, 9 x 12) and, if I am sure to get an even edge to edge, coat, this has worked.
Mitch.
When I used to glue my own canvas panels prior to painting, I used Polyvinyl Acetate. I concluded it was worth spending many times as much for stabilized PVA glue from an art supply purveyor rather than buying gallons of PVA cheaply from Home Depot. PVA is inherently unstable. The archival, buffered, PVA product from an art store, if used promptly, will produce an archival product. However, if stored it too will turn acidic. The manufacturer will tell you how long it keeps. My recollection is that it stays balanced only for a few months.
Have you glued up a highly textured painting? Did you take any precautions when putting the panel and canvas into your press?
Gerry
Really appreciate this thorough response! Although I know I’ll miss the “bounce” of stretched canvas, I’m off to buy a roll of preprimed to experiment.
-Robin
Thanks so much for this article. I use the canvas pieces, then mount them to gatorboard, which seems very stable. They’re light in weight and easy to cut, and not too bad in price when bought in 4-foot by 8-foot sheets. I have been using “Yes” glue, which has seemed OK.
Being new to painting, but not to art, I started learning the craft to better understand the art. I don’t like the bounce of the canvas especially if I are doing scrubbing techniques like Mitch demonstrates for underpainting. I use 1/4 or 3/8 inch cabinet grade ply, cut to the size desired. For 1/4 inch I build a frame and glue and nail. For bigger, I use 3/8 inch, seal the back and edges with a sanding sealer, slightly rounding the edges of the top surface [this helps reduce paint build up on the edges]. I use soft gel for adhesion PVA; white glues and gesso are thinner and leave more room for error. Lay the gel on liberally, but evenly. I use a 4 inch plastic spatula, lay on the canvas cut oversize to account for shrinkage, roll from the center out. The gel will be pressed into the canvas and there will be gel squeezed out of the edges. Turn over and apply weight.
Mitch — great blog posting! Thanks. I’ve been mounting my painted canvases (or unpainted canvases, in advance of plein air work) to panels using a slightly different method which I find works well for me. After applying the PVA glue liberally to the surface of the panel, I lay my canvas down on top of the glue-coated panel and use a hard rubber brayer (roller) to push down on the surface of the painting, working from the center out to the edges, to make sure I have good adhesion and that no air bubbles are trapped. I then run my clean finger all around the outside perimeter of the painting where it meets the edge of the panel, to double-check that there’s complete adhesion along this margin. I cover the painting with a sheet of waxed paper and put a couple of heavy books or another board plus a weight on top of the painting/panel sandwich and let dry overnight. The next day I use an X-Acto knife to trim the excess canvas from around the margins of the panel.
I appreciate your answer and would like to add a couple of things. First, you can keep the canvas unprimed if using acrylics. Washes of acrylic ink or thinned paint give a nice, surface to paint on. Two, you can roll the canvas when your’e not working on it, which makes it far easier to transport and store. It’s also easier to reach the middle of large pieces. Three, I glued one of my unstretched canvases to a piece of bamboo screen that had been reiforced with some wood pieces. It’s unconventional, far less expensive than framing, and suits the subject matter.
I learn so much from your emails. The Kahn videos are worth me viewing several times. I will forward to them to my painting buddy in MA. Keep up the great, informative work you do.
Thanks for sharing your technique with us. I also do the same – using paper as a substrate for oil paintings – but I prefer to use a reversible adhesive. Lineco Neutral pH Adhesive is one. It works best when mounting canvas to board, since it is water-reversible and the water won’t damage the canvas. When using paper, I use BEVA film, which is heat-activated. (Water will possible weaken the paper and damage it.) It only requires a 150 deg F clothes iron activate the film.