Pre-stretched canvas versus canvas boards
Many of my students ask about using canvas boards and I tell them to avoid them. Canvas boards have their place in oil painting as do pre-stretched canvases. Canvas boards are ideal for testing paints or doing rapid sketch work in paint to check your subject matter or color palette before investing time and energy or materials into artwork on a pre-stretched canvas.
My reasons are simple for avoiding canvas boards in general:
- Canvas boards purchased at general artist supply stores are usually constructed of primed cotton canvas glued to cardboard. Cardboard, which is made from trees has an ingredient called lignans in it which are acidic in nature. Acids will degrade the canvas over time as will the glue which is not guaranteed to be acid free either. Unless it states clearly that it is acid-free, don’t assume anything. Most canvas boards are made very cheaply in China and are not worth working on.
- What you paint on a canvas board may turn out to be a masterpiece when you are finished and what a shame if it was lost in a few decades time due to deterioration or yellowing from acids leaching from the cardboard and glue into the canvas and paints.
In contrast, most pre-stretched cotton canvases purchased at an art supply store, while not acid-free in general, are a much better proposition in the long run. Pre-streched canvas is usually made from pine wood stretcher bars. Pine wood is not low on the acidic scale, but it touches very little of the canvas or artwork, and that alone makes it a better option than the cardboard backing that touches all of the artwork.
There are companies that make neutral pH pre-stretched canvas and canvas boards and they are not common or inexpensive. The internet provides several sources for neutral pH canvas boards for oil painting on if you intend to work on a firm surface such as wood or archival grade cardboard. Wind River Arts makes some beautiful linen on birch boards that are worth checking out.
Up Next… Linen canvas versus cotton canvas
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