ART MATERIALS - NEW IDEAS

If your an Artist just setting out don't sell yourself short, by that I mean buying cheap

materials. It will return to haunt you. Cotton canvas is not a long lived material. It's

great for the hobby painter but if you plan to become recognized and hopefully

remembered, then leave it off your materials list.

I can hear you say" how am I going to afford the best materials", especially if

your a student with no living wage. These are tough times, but......you could look for
student discounts or pool your resources by bulk buying, with your fellow students.
But if you have an ambition to create fine work, it must stand the test of time. 

Your first works will be scrutinized as will your later work, and if the earlier work

has not survived old father time, all your first work will have been to no avail.

Here is my first oil painting on board???, as a result it's not a keeper, and it was my

first serious attempt with Oils, Painted in my early teens 1972. It depicted night fishing

with lamps and hand nets!, those fishermen knew what real hard work was.

14"x 10" my phone on the lower right for reference

In 1972 I found a great inspirational book in my local library, on the way home from school.
The title was " Painting the Sea " by Philip G Shumaker, the above night painting appealed to me, it had everything, the dark sea, the luminous lamps, the surreal atmosphere.  
  I was naive in thinking if I could paint the Sea I could paint anything??.
 I soon realized what a fine painter Philip G Shumaker was,
sadly he is no longer with us, but what a legacy he left, his paintings
 rarely come up for sale and there is very little history
on the internet. But I have noticed over the years, some of the finest artist's
in the world don't need popular public appeal, or even wide spread publication of their work to attract a following, their work sells before the paints dry.

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   A few years ago I thought I would buy a large roll of fine Artists linen ( flax ) canvas, with the hope it would spur me on to take up the brushes again.

So where to buy the not so common linen, the Internet was my first line of inquiry.

One suppler stood out. A mill up in Bradford http://www.whaleys-bradford.ltd.uk/index.htm sold linen on rolls, both fine and coarse varieties right off the loom.

The old adage "more for less" applies here. Buy a larger cut of linen and the price

is reduced on a sliding scale. This appealed to my dwindling bank funds thank you
Mr. Cameron and Mr. Clegg, your VERY HIGH petrol tax and 20% vat and your don't give a dam about it's people. Back to Art & Science maybe we can create or invent
a way out of this austerity, no wait, austerity stops creativity and invention.
  Rant over, for now.

I have been studying Art materials and conservation, what would make for a good
long lasting surfaces and supports.Artist have always experimented with
supports and grounds, it's been taking place for centuries, most of the information is widely available in books and on the net. Back in 1989 I purchased several books
mainly Art materials types;

"The Materials and Techniques of Painting" by Jonathan Stephenson
&
"The Artist's Handbook of Materials & Techniques" by Ralph Mayer.

The Ralph Mayer book has been extensively adopted, by Universities and 
Art establishments for many years, it was fist published in England 1951
and was revised and expanded as late as 1991.  

Most Materials books will give new and ancient techniques, that have been tried and tested over many decades. Rabbit skin glue has been traditionally used to size
canvases, but the organic nature of this size, is susceptible to moisture, and
bugs love to munch on it!!. So what would a conservation
material substitute be for the canvas size?.
It surprised me, PVA polyvinyl  acetate. It has to be specially made for Artists, you will know it as used in pva wood glue, but this is a non reactive type.
Raw canvas is sized to make a barrier to prevent the oil paint rotting the canvas
over time.

PVA SIZE

Gamblin make PVA size specifically for Artists, but here in the UK you can find
conservation PVA in other brands, beware; do not buy the reversible type 
as it's water soluble!! so it can be reversed for repair purposes.
You require the permanent PVA for Artist's.

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Once you have applied your size, you will require a ground that will give you
a surface to apply Oil paint, again I turned to new materials, I have a preference
for not using any ground that takes 6 months to dry??.
So my choice is Gamblin's Oil painting ground.  

Oil painting ground

I will put a demonstration of how to apply all the above materials in a future article.
But try this link to Gamblin's own product videos.
http://www.gamblincolors.com/oil.painting.techniques/grounds.html

And remember once your painting has left you, it will have to take care of it's self.
It can only survive the harsh world, if you have used the best materials you could
find to create it.

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