Lisa McShane Art

Surfaces, brushes, paints and mediums. Those are the materials of an oil painter. Each of those elements are important to the finished product. One of the very best painting surfaces is an oil or alkyd primed linen mounted to a panel. For my larger paintings I stretch linen or canvas over wood bars, size the fabric and then prime the surface with an oil primer. But for smaller paintings I prefer the linen panels for several reasons: Less fragile. When you're storing or moving paintings, this is important. Easy to handle. A nice stable surface with no movement. There is no flex when you paint on it and later, that makes them more archival. You can achieve a gorgeous surface effect. You have more frames to choose from (and yes, panels must be framed!) Linen panels seem complicated to make but they're not. It's easier than stretching canvas or linen and a much higher quality surface than buying stretched canvas. And the beauty of making your own panels is that once you...

I love making progress on the tasks. This weekend I stretched 3 canvases and this morning scrubbed the sizing onto them. On the top is a closeup of the Best Pro stretcher bar, stretched and sized (note the clean corners!). The Best system is essentially an aluminum frame with wood for stapling and wrapping the fabric. It was easy to put together (except the pilot holes for the corner pieces aren't large enough for the screws they provide.) It's a little pricey but it's for a 26" x 36"commissioned  painting that will be shipped to Arkansas. I've had a little trouble lately with warping and there's some humidity down there so this is my insurance. After I stretch the linen so that it's as tight as a drum*, I scrub the size into the fabric with a large bristle brush. I use Gamblin's PVA for this and scrub it on front, back and on the sides. Tomorrow I start applying the oil primer. Notes on materials: The oil priming brush that I'm using...