Re-using Canvases

Dire predictions of ice and snow put the kibosh on my plans to go to the Artist Materials Expo with friends today. The driving distance was just too great to deal with uncertainty over when and if the sleet, freezing rain and snow would begin. Since I couldn't go to this long-anticipated event, I consoled myself by rounding up every canvas in the studio I had fallen out of love with and gessoing over them. They included a 16x20 painting I had done years ago that I was never happy with, three big canvases and two smaller canvases I had started and later abandoned when my enthusiasm had waned in mid-stream, a demo canvas from my teaching days at KSU, and two brand new "virgin" canvases I had bought on sale somewhere, stashed away and had completely forgotten about.

So out came the gesso and I went to town. I used both the Utrecht brand (nice and thick with great covering power) and Liquitex, which does a good job on heavily textured surfaces. Each canvas was treated to two coats, which I applied with a 3 inch flat nylon utility brush. Between the two brands of gesso, all pre-existing colors and collage elements disappeared, leaving lovely fresh white surfaces on which to paint again. Please note: none of these canvases had ever been varnished. Once varnish is applied, you can't do anything further to a canvas painted and varnished with acrylic products!

Some artists never re-use their canvases, but I think it's perfectly acceptable. If the Masters re-used theirs (and they did, many times, as art conservators have discovered) then the practice is good enough for me. If I were working on a commissioned piece I'd start with a brand new canvas just on general principles, but if I create a painting on a recycled canvas and later someone comes along who wants to buy it I see no reason they shouldn't do so. In those situations most buyers have been quite fascinated with the idea of there having been "something else" underneath what they see. It makes for some interesting conversations between us, and it probably generates additional conversation once it's hanging in their home. Every good painting has a story. A painting done on a recycled canvas has more than one!

©2015 Lynn Edwards

Freedom to Experiment

There's a 24x30 inch stretched canvas in my studio that could probably serve as a boat anchor. It has been gessoed-over too many times to count. It also sports a thick layer of texture created with a wall compound called Flex-All. This is my Experimentation Canvas and it has provided a working surface for many, many experiments in its lifetime. Which is to say that if it's ever hung on a wall it will constitute a safety hazard. That puppy is H-E-A-V-Y.

It didn't start out to be an experimentation canvas, of course. It started out to be a nice landscape or something (I no longer remember what) that I decided I didn't like. So I gessoed it over. And over. And over. By now I've lost count of how many paintings and half-paintings lie hidden under its many layers of gesso. Some turned out ok, some were mediocre and some were truly awful. All of them were the subjects of experimental techniques: dripped paint, weird glazes, scratchings and scrapings, unconventional substances and who-knows-what-else.

Somehow I've always found it easier to conduct experiments on this one (ridiculously abused) canvas. It's my dedicated sacrificial lamb. I never worry about creating masterpieces on it. I worry more about it falling and fracturing my foot. What I appreciate about it is the total freedom it gives me to try any technique I feel like trying with no concerns whatsoever. No hesitations about trashing an expensive new canvas or blowing through costly sheets of watercolor paper. Nope, I just get out the gesso, apply a coat or two over the previous experiment and voila! I have a fresh, clean surface on which to play.

Gesso is amazing. Slather it on a failed painting and it does away with your sins (an unfortunate acetone catastrophe comes to mind). It's absolution in a jar, capable of returning things to a state of purity. I love the stuff.

Nowadays I use Utrecht's gesso, which is very opaque and thick but can be thinned with a bit of water. Cheap Joe's is another brand I like very much. Both are excellent products and are good values for the money, but even a thin, runny gesso can provide you with the freedom to try new techniques. Just pull out a not-yet-varnished canvas you don't care for, hit it with some gesso -- any gesso -- and you're good to go! Have fun!