Here’s how:
- Buy an acrylic-primed, stretched canvas and some oil primer. Avoid the ones made poorly with really cheap materials.
- Clean the canvas with denatured alcohol and let it dry.
- Spread primer onto the canvas with a knife. Make the layer thin. You can dilute the primer slightly with solvent if desired.
- Use your fingers to rub the primer into the weave of the canvas. Keep rubbing until you have a very smooth, very thin layer of primer.
- If it’s a leaded primer, then wear gloves and take other precautions as needed to insure that you don’t ingest any.
- Place the canvas facing inward toward a wall to limit the amount of dust that will fall onto it before it dries.
- Allow the primer to cure for at least several weeks.
Is this as good, archivally, as stretching and priming the canvas from scratch? No, it is not. Is it a really bad idea? I don’t see why it would be any worse than painting straight onto acrylic-primed canvas.
It makes a very smooth, nonabsorbent, lovely surface to paint on.
Hi David–
I wanted to do this as a way of economically producing decent supports for studies that had a chance of lasting if they came out well–
I bought some Rublev lead oil ground from natural pigments–
–What would you consider an acceptable acrylic-primed, stretched canvas? (any example of brand?) –Could you do this with an acrylic-primed panel / panel with an acrylic primed canvas adhered to it?
–If I primed the support more textural with a thicker impasto how long should I wait for it to cure?
Great to see you posting again on a more consistent basis!
Thanks, Jeff
@Jeff -
Jeff,
Fredrix seems to be OK once you’ve added oil priming, and widely available. There’s no reason why you couldn’t put oil primer onto a an acrylic-primed panel, whether it has canvas on it or not. I tend to make panels from scratch, myself, and see no reason to add acrylic into the mix under those circumstances.
If you add more texture, I’d suggest waiting six months or so. That’s a long time to wait, but if you make up a bunch of panels two or three times a year, then within six months you’ll always have something to paint on.