Thread: canvas construction

No frames, but here's how I make my stretchers.

http://woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=53044

I've used all my stock of old pine now, so will be buying a load of Paulownia shortly. I don't bother with wedges in the stretchers, if the canvas is shrunk properly and the stretcher is assembled without the potential to twist, it's not a problem.

Cheers,

P

Hi Hilux

My nephew is a professional artist http://www.michaelwhiteart.com/index.php and he wont use anything other than frames that can be adjusted because of the fact that the canvas can become slack.

These frames can be stretched by driving wedges into the corners.

http://www.artmaterials.com.au/index...4f42904d736ff7

Here is an interesting site about stretching canvases after the canvas has gone slack.

http://archive.amol.org.au/recollections/1/4/03.htm

I think the most important things are you keep the frames light weight and you bevel in the outside framework a touch, so the canvas doesn't rest on the timber. Only tight around the very outside edge. <- and aris this edge so it doesn't cut up the canvas...trimmer with a radius bit, or plane,,,,sandpaper. etc.

The other thing I've noticed which might be of interest to you, is that canvas has a memory........so if you have a mishap pressing in the canvas a bit, if you leave it a couple of hours it tends to pull itself back straight again. Great that, cause I did that once to a very expensive painting.

Hilux

If you are interested in using paulownia visit my web site www.paulownia-timber-sales.com.au for more details of this timber that is grown and milled on my property

I'm still coming John!


P

Originally Posted by Barry_White

My nephew is a professional artist http://www.michaelwhiteart.com/index.php and he wont use anything other than frames that can be adjusted because of the fact that the canvas can become slack.

These frames can be stretched by driving wedges into the corners.

Hi Barry!

I don't disagree as I've seen lots of canvasses stretch over time, however for an amateur, buying keyed stretchers is significantly more expensive than building from scratch.

I've also had a lot of success (touch wood) without, by shrinking the canvas after stretching, saturating it with water and getting a prime coat on to the wet canvass, then allowing it to dry. After the work is finished, I give it a spray of water on the back of the canvas to give it another "shrink"

Commercial galleries may not be too fussed on this method these days, but it was the "old" way 30 years ago, and it works for me. I don't know how long it'll stay tight though.

Have you any ideas as to how to simply replicate the mongrel mitred corners?

Cheers,
P

Originally Posted by bitingmidge

No frames, but here's how I make my stretchers.

sorry i should have specified stretchers, that is what i was actually asking about. i make mine out of pine, and they do the job perfectly fine, i dont really have the money to buy any half exotic timber at the moment haha.

some of my artwork can be seen here:
www.dancingbomb.com

cheers!

Originally Posted by hilux

i dont really have the money to buy any half exotic timber at the moment haha.

My pine is second-hand stuff, the paulownia is cheaper to buy if you have the equipment to machine it!

I like your work!

Good luck with the exhibition, hope you sell enough to buy more pine for next year!

Cheers,

P

Hilux,
Liked your stuff also, keep it up.

Looking at Barry's nephew's site the first painting I looked at was "Oil on primed rag on ply"
Which is of course another way of doing it. Fixing the canvas onto ply, usually with your base paint coat.
Not as light weight as the stretcher, and the purist would say not the same feel, but you do get the canvas texture.

I have done a few big acrylic paintings (exercises) on Hardiflex, and they are holding up OK, and following on this line of saving a dollar, I have often thought of using a painter's drop sheet. as canvas material. Not used ones of course, but I reckon they are the same stuff as a lot of the cheaper "artist" canvas is.

Barry, I liked your nephew's painting a lot, and it's great to see he's sold heaps.

cheers
Bill

Originally Posted by billbeee

Barry, I liked your nephew's painting a lot, and it's great to see he's sold heaps.

cheers
Bill

Hi Bill

He is a very prolific painter and has his gallery right in the middle of Leura in the Blue Mountains which is a tourist mecca. He actually sells over 90% of his paintings and has them professionally photographed. Most of the paintings he has for sale at the moment came from a three month trip he did last year in the USA.