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.