Canvas Building Workshop!

Learn to make and take home the canvases that you build.

I just announced this workshop.
Sign up quick, space and tools are limited.
+ You get to take home two excellently made canvases worth the price of the class.

Saturday April 8, 
11 am - 2 pm.

http://www.atelierartista.com/canvas-building-workshop

♬ Roll out... ♬

I grabbed the remaining supplies that were necessary to undertake this project and got down to the studio for a late night session to get me back on track with this project.

To begin, I had some ordering to do to open up the long wall in my studio. Stacked my paintings, moved a bunch of stuff around and took a load to the Epcor UAS +15 space that I will be in residency for, for the next 2 months.

Play this Ludacris video "roll out" to add to the feeling of this process blog :)

I rolled out the canvas and stapled it along the wall. Got the flat black onto the paint roller and began to roll it out......................
Lots of splatter.
Doesn't matter.
The wall is blacker.
The job's done faster.
 ♬ Roll out, Roll out, Roll out!  ♬

Preparadness is key

Shiva +

I began working on the final canvases to be prepped for my upcoming show titled "Divine Inspiration" at the Stride Gallery at the end of October.

I put together this 72" X 54" frame with lumber that I found by the freight elevator and the cross bars were from a dismantled canvas. I had some repair work to do and a lot of sanding to get the frame fit for stretching.

This canvas just so happens to be the measure of man, this man, like a Leonardo drawing, that's sacred geometry that fits my person, just right.

I spent one evening stretching some of my 15 oz canvas over the frame and some additional frames while enjoying Penn's Sunday School podcast, God I love that show. lol. I game them the first coat of Gesso and let them dry overnight.

The next evening before hitting the studio, I went to see a buddy DJ a set at the Hi Fi. While there a beauty parade of gorgeous gals in artistically altered prom dresses joined me for some dancing. Afterward, I stretched two new supports, and primed them all with a pepto bismal like color, inspired by the no frills no gimmicks dress of a friend. I used the super sponge to give it a little texture.

I let that dry for a day and then came back  and gave a light sand with 100 grit. I then put a second and third coat on the canvases to create a little more texture. I added some blue to the pepto mix and coated the supports with some more texture. I am still not getting what I want, the soupy gesso seems to want to level itself out. I am trying to get it like the lead white we did in Martinho's class, except without using the poisonous stuff.

After being turned to mince meat in my martial arts class, I toughed it out and brought a jar of black gesso I purchased that morning after cutting mattes for my framed prints at Motion Gallery. I applied it with a brush in a way to create more texture on the surface.

I had some fun applying the black, it was so hot in the studio I painted in the nude.
True story.

One louder!

Im still at it.

In order to get a velvety finish on my support ground, I paint a third coat of tinted gesso onto my stretched canvases. After the first layer I sand with 80 - 100 grit sandpaper to take down any lumps and imperfections. After the second layer I use 150 - 200grit  sandpaper and go higher after the third layer for a super smooth and soft surface to paint.

 The required coats of gesso to ensure proper coverage is two. I do three. I go one louder!

I am a firm believer that hard work pays off. Even if it is a bit messy. This is the time not to cut corners and definitely the part to the pride in. Craftsmanship is key!

 If I want my work to outlast me and be a legacy, and if I am going to spend hundreds of hours making something beautiful, I want it to be the best quality it can be.

Thats the BATISTA promise:
Integrity & Quality you can rely on.

Labor of Love

I love a quality built support. Its worth the effort.

Spending all that time on a creative act in intense concentration honing the paint through skillful means on a less than adequate foundation makes no sense to me.  And so .... I spend another full day in the studio stretching and priming canvases. My studio is clad in off white surfaces awaiting an explosion of creative energy.

This was a 48" X 72" frame that I peeled damaged canvas off of, then began the arduous task of stretching 15 oz on it.  This is where good quality canvas pliers come in handy and they help against fatigue.  

My trusty gesso brush and a bucket of gesso I watered down and added pigment to.

The next stage is brushing the first coating of high quality gesso. I like to add a bit of pigment, in this case burnt sienna to the batch so that it is easy to tell if the previous layer as been fully covered or if you have sanded too deeply between layers, doing this helps to ensures proper coverage.

Priming the first layer on a bunch of surfaces. These standard 18" X 24" portrait frames are going to be part of my upcoming series of & deadly sins. The next studio visit I will sand each surface and apply yet another layer of tinted gesso.

Meanwhile I began reworking my "screaming Indian" piece, reminding me how much fun it is to play with oils again ;) Heres a peek.

Staples: A love/hate relationship

So in keeping with the flames of passion for creativity raging......... I meet in battle in a love/hate relationship with my constant foe. Staples!

I'm in the studio and so proud of all the white surface I have hung, I decide after a little re-arranging that I might as well and get started on the work I know I am going to have to do in the near future anyhow. Some of the discount canvases I have purchased in the past were mainly for the support/lumber.  I had to pull out each and every staple in order to stretch my much thicker and higher quality canvas over them.

I loosen each with a heckles knife blade. Then pull them with pliers and place them in a silver goblet so I don't wind up stepping on them later.  Here is a pile of cheap 18 X24" pine stretchers from Michaels. Everyone was punctured so I cut off the tho canvas to be replaced by 15 Oz, triple gessoed stretched by me quality/

Here are just a few done by the end of the day, waiting to be primed.

Priming with a bit of purple pigment

I'm a busy bunny, but when I have free time I don't waste it.

I should have been studying for my bar tending exam, instead I put in some time priming near a dozen canvases with gesso with a bit of purple pigment added to it.  I also got a can of bright red enamel spray paint to jazz up the frame for the "Taming the Tiger" canvas. I think it is going to look super good when finished and framed!

Gesso with purple pigment added.  Having a little pigment added allows me to tell the difference between the layers and which direction the strokes go between sanding. I laid it on thick with a brush. It took a number of hours, two of the canvases are 5' X 5'.

To the top right of this picture you can see my first framing job with the ikea frames. "Blissful Union" just happens to fit particularly well with the matte that is included with the frame.  Its not easy keeping the glass dust ad speck free or mounting the image in the matte. It will take some experience to master this skill.  For the remaining prints and frames I will need some additional supplies and will need to have the mattes cut. I am planing on doing it when I have my first bit of free time, hopefully as soon as next week-end.