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Choosing the right artist canvas

Today's artist is confronted with a wide range of woven materials, all claiming to be artist canvas.

Sadly there are no standards for artist canvas be it cotton, linen or synthetic and no real enforcement to control such claims, and many of these products are useless other than for temporary decorations.

Here we will try to sort from the hype of artist canvas and give the artist and indeed the art student all of facts necessary to enable them to choose a suitable artist canvas for their needs. canvas and is priming is the foundation of a painting stop a competent trace person would not think of building a house on unsuitable foundations and similarly an artist should be justice careful about the artist canvas they use.

"There is no evidence that artists of the past were more affluent than those of the present, but there is probably plenty of proof that they never tried to affect economies at the expense of quality. the use of second-rate materials and inferior methods in creative painting is a mid 20th century phenomenon."

From The artists handbook of materials and techniques by Ralph Mayer.

WHAT IS CANVAS?

Canvas is a generic term used for cloth woven from relatively coarse fibre. In painting the term canvas usually means a coated (primed) fabric, ready to use. Practically every type of woven textile has been utilized at some time for paintings, with linen, cotton, hemp and jute being the most common.

CHOOSING A CANVAS

In selecting an artist canvas the artist must consider two important factors: the support (woven cloth) and the ground (gesso or priming). These factors are critical to the soundness and stability of the final painting. The technical success or failure of a painting is dependent on the correct choice of canvas and the method of application of permanent artist colours and mediums.

This guide will only examine prepared canvas, particularly, acrylic gesso primed cotton duck, which is widely available but often the most unsuitable for artist use.

The above was extcacted from the Art Spectrum web site at ART SPECTRUM
where you can view the full story which will give you essential information to help get the right artist canvas for your work.

We market a range of canvas products from Pebeo, Frederix, Holbein and Monte Mart, all having varying quality levels suited to the Art Student right through to the most discerning professional artist. Many people even assemble their own Artist Canvas from rolls of artist canvas and stretcher bars and we have a wide range of these also from the same suppliers. .