If you want to create gallery quality work, linen canvas, per the traditionalists, is the way to go. The most superior quality linen canvas comes out of Belgium where it has been cultivated specifically for the art market. Linen duck canvas is made from the flax plant which has been woven into fabric. These fibers are long in nature and tend to have a stronger tensile strength to them than the shorter cotton fibers. Linen can be twisted into a fine, tight strand and woven into a canvas duck that is extremely durable and fine textured. The finer the linen, the finer the texture of linen canvas and the more expensive. However, linen, with its natural slubs is often sought after for its texture in a painting and a rough fabric texture is often a desirable trait in a canvas.

Linen canvas is somewhat difficult to stretch because it doesn’t yield to the stretcher bars the way canvas does. Nature imbued this fiber with some interesting characteristics: it is more resilient to moisture because of inherent oils –yet primes easily; handles contractions due to hot and cold atmosphere changes; and is resistant to various types of decay.  The stiffness of the fabric is what makes it desirable as a painting support and its durability –or longevity over the years excites art collectors.

Linen canvases are often hand oiled or painted with a lead based oil paint as a primer to create a super smooth finish for Realism-style portrait work. This alone can raise the price.

Cotton duck canvas, on the other hand, is made from cotton fibers which are shorter than linen and come from, surprise! the cotton plant. Cotton can be woven to any degree of fineness, but it will always be less expensive than linen due to its availability, ease of growing, harvesting and manufacturing. Also, cotton reaches its limit when it comes to larger paintings: it can’t support the weight of itself and the paint combined. This is where the competition shines. Cotton canvas can be made be just as durable as linen and go the distance, so don’t feel bad if the price of linen makes it a bit more cost prohibitive. Cotton is just fine for all your painting needs until you reach canvas sizes exceeding 6′ in either direction. Heavy cotton duck canvas can be fine for larger size canvases, but consult with the experts to make sure that it won’t fail you on the first day of your art show!

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

Jan Van Eyck, The Marriage of Arnolfini, 1434, egg tempera painting

Our modern history of oil paint’s popularity can be traced to the egg tempera painters of the late 15th century who switched over to oil.

A quick look at Wikipedia’s take on the history of oil paint gives a nod in the direction of western Afghanistan where oil paints were used for their durability on metal shields and other tournament objects during the 5th through 9th century. (That was something I didn’t know until I went to Wikipedia).

A better history of oil paints can be found in an old document written by a medieval monk named Theophilus who, back in the early 12th century between the years 1100 and 1125, outlined how to create and use oil paints from oil and pigment. This handwritten account in Latin survives in Vienna. It’s possible Theophilus had knowledge of the Middle Eastern methods, but what I find interesting is that he was documenting the high art techniques of the Middle Ages! This suggests that the history of oil paint’s popularity is much older than the beginning of the Renaissance.

Storm Over Antigua, W.I., oil on canvas

Joking aside, oil painting mediums are used to thin oil paint, make blending oil paint easier, make them more spreadable on the canvas, slow or speed up the drying time, create a nice liquid like consistency for painting your signature, glaze a canvas and more. “Medium” is really just the vehicle that holds the color or pigment.

Here’s my favorite recipe for mixing a linseed oil medium that will meet your most basic needs with a couple variations: Mix together in a glass jar and keep sealed with an air tight lid when not in use.

Basic traditional formula: 1 part linseed oil to 1 part turpenine.
To dry faster: 1 part linseed to 2 parts turpentine. (Tip: Use in high humidity situations).
To dry slower: 2 parts linseed oil to 1 part turpentine. (Tip: Use in extremely dry climate).

Substitutions:
If you don’t like the smell of turpentine –an extract from an oily, exotic hardwood tree and extremely traditional in the oil painting medium formula, you can use odorless turpenoid or mineral spirits both of which are petroleum distillates. White spirits are not highly recommended since it can degrade the product over time.

Linseed oil medium tends to have a very slight yellowing effect over time. If you do not wish for this to occur use Poppy oil but keep in mind that it is even slower to dry than linseed oil medium. Walnut Oil is a fine substitute but may tinge your whites a bit yellow over time.

Stand oil can be used as a substitute for linseed and it will be slower to mix and slower to dry, too. Consider mixing twice as much turpentine to it and let it sit for 24-48 hours so that the turpentine can dissolve the stand oil properly before using it. Stand oil medium will help your paint dry without cracking, your paint will be stronger but it can take forever to dry. The reward of patience is patience…

Up Next… “My Opinion on Oil Painting Varnishes”

Road To Alfonsinas Sea of Cortez, oils on canvas

Painting with oil paints is…indescribable until you try it. Oh, I can go on about how smooth and silky the oil paint feels when too much is used and the brush eagerly slips over the canvas texture in a rush only to offer resistance in the end as dry brush meets dry canvas. Or, I can tell you that the visual pleasure it offers, as colors willingly blend into beautiful tints, tones and shades is akin to watching a spectacular sunset evolve. Even the smell of paint is unique with hints of Greek Retsina wine and pressed linseed oil.

Some brands of oil paint are better than others. Take food as an example; we know which ones are better for us when confronted with choices like GMO, organic and conventionally grown foods, gourmet and fast foods and unprocessed foods like organic grassfed raw milk cheese from NZ and over processed foods like ultra pasteurized, homogenized milk based Velveeta in a can. The same is true in the manufacturing of oil paints. There are expensive oil paints that are made in small batches of professional grade oil paints that have pure, high-end or rare ingredients in them that certain artists would prostitute themselves for. Professional grade colors have excellent permanence. On the opposite end there are low grade student paints meant for experimenting with. These paints have very little pigment in them, are inflated with fillers and stabilizers and the oils have been hydrogenated to expand them. These paints might fade over time, flake, chip, stretch, crumble or have almost no permanence. Somewhere in the middle is a happy medium, pun fully intended.

Fillers, binders and such make it difficult to move paint on a canvas. These paint ingredients make it necessary to use large quantities of painting medium to make the paints more pliable. Of course, some impasto painters –those who love and strive to achieve generous amounts of texture on their canvas prefer “stiff” paints. The Realist painter in me loves a smooth brush stroke produced by a silky sable brush on a fine textured canvas. And for the record, old paints that have dried out and oxidized will be just as nasty to work with as cheap paints.

May I recommend you try painting with oil paints or if you are already an oil painter, treat yourself to a really decadent tube of paint such as a cold pressed and ground paint with pure Earth mineral by Old Holland.

What’s your favorite oil paint brand?

Do you ever get traditional and make your own oil paint from grounds? Yumm….

Conch Shell, oils on canvas

“First, do you know what you are going to paint?”
If the answer is “no” you should not go shopping because there is no way you can buy the most perfect canvas for your first (or next) painting.  Talk about putting the cart before the horse!

The most important aspect to buying a canvas, for oil painting your first picture, is that you understand that the inner vision of your first oil painting is chemically and energetically imprinted on every cell of your body. There exists in the artist’s body a strange and beautiful dynamic tension –that even the artist is totally unaware of until the painting is completed and signed. The best way I can explain this tension is to perhaps coarsely defined it as ”the inner knowing or knowledge of the finished product, which exists in time and space as a completed painting, that the artist has become aware of at a subconscious level.” What I translate this into and tell every art student is this:

“Trust in your initial and heartfelt choice of a canvas size for oil painting your first painting. Let your body tell you when you have the right size picked out. Expect a feeling of happiness or perhaps a sense of relief –a feeling of contentment and peace that the right canvas is before you and you know in your heart, mind and body that your selected image will fit on the canvas.”

When you go to buy a canvas for an oil painting you benefit from having your picture with you in the art supply store. You can hold it up in front of you while you place various canvases on the floor or shelf before you and explore your size options. If nothing grabs you or the shape or size you want is not there go to the next art supply store. When in doubt, do without.

There is only one other rule I remind people about that the really zealous students forget about; In general, the canvas must fit in your car or truck. Other than that, go for it! Get the canvas of your dreams! Your first oil painting might be a masterpiece…you never know! And most of all, don’t be shy that your inner wisdom picked a big canvas for the first painting effort.

I bought a larger truck inpart to tow boats but mostly to accommodate hauling my larger paintings around. What I forgot about was having enough wall space to hang them while they await their new owners. I suppose I could just store them in the back of the truck!

Do you have a “canvas for oil painting” story that other artists would find amusing?

My First Oil Painting - Age 11

For more than ten years I taught beginning oil painting in Cupertino, CA in a community center setting that became a sort of open studio for more advanced painters who wanted to escape Silicon Valley and paint in a quiet setting with like minded folk.

The first lesson always begins with a talk about oil painting art supplies. I reveal what is needed and why…I even delve deep into the differences between water color versus oil painting brushes and use diagrams to help people remember the names of certain brushes. There is a good bit of info I share and then we discuss how to select an image to paint. This is the most important lesson of all. The idea behind this is so critical that if you get it wrong, you will never be a successful painter.

Since this class is about me guiding the students to a completed image on canvas, I ask that each person select a photo or magazine image to work from. The reasons for this are simple:

1. I can’t read minds. If someone has something in their mind’s eye, I can’t see it and help them when they get stuck.
2. I can point out details that they missed. I can hide part of the image to reveal contrast, isolate color, find parallel lines or horizon lines with a ruler on the image and more…
3. Most beginners are looking to relax in a beginning oil painting class, not get stressed out from having to paint a live model or work from a still life before them.
4. If for some reason they finish the class and their painting is still unfinished and they choose to work at home alone, they have the photo or image to work from.

Now that we have established some basics, I’ll give you my number one rule about what to oil paint on your first blank canvas: anything you want as long as it comes from your heart.

I reassure all beginning oil painting students that as long as it comes from the heart they won’t lose their motivation to get past their obstacles when stuck and they will long to complete their inner vision and be persistent.

So, if you are contemplating what to paint whether you are a new, beginning oil painting student or an old hand with the brush, return to this simple rule and you will always find your brush returning to the canvas to finish what you started.

As a beginning oil painting student myself, I picked the Grand Tetons because I had recently been there and loved it. I always found Nature to be my retreat. I was a little put off by my instructors insistence that I do the painting in Raw Umber and Titanium White to learn from, and that’s another blog post!

Next up…”How to Select A Canvas.”