Almost ready
I put the final toned ground on the linen-cotton blend canvas that I recently wrote about. The canvas is dry, indeed, it was dry the same day I applied the ground, but it still needs…
Category: materials
Commercial canvas
I spend a lot of time preparing canvases--stretching, priming, and grounding. The process works well for me but it's time-consuming. I would gladly buy commercially-prepared canvas but my experience with it has been bad. In…
Smooth is best
Rereading what I wrote about preparing a canvas, I realized that I didn't emphasize the main goal enough. Yes, it's important to protect the canvas, but the real goal is to make a great surface.…
I bought manganese violet
Like the title says, I bought some manganese violet. Some artists maintain that they can reproduce every color by using a small collection of paints. While it's true that you can create a tremendous variety…
Ragged easel
My Utrecht easel has served me well. True, it's held together with glue and clamps, but it still handles the large-size paintings that I make. One thing the easel lacks is a place to rest…
Review: Master’s Touch
Hobby Lobby, for those like me who hadn't shopped there before, is a craft supermarket that also does a brisk business in frames and framing. They carry art supplies too--stretchers, acrylics, brushes, and oil paints.…
New palette
Christmas was wonderful again this year. One of my gifts was a new palette. My homemade one is decrepit, as you can see in this photo. I prepared the new palette--a glass-covered reproduction--by removing the…
