Linen question
 

OK - how embaressing, but there is an odd odor in my studio. I saw a mouse the other day, but I havent caught the sucker yet - so it isnt him. I'm using a linen canvas for the first time and it is fairly large. Do these have an odor? The smell reminds me of the Maine when you are driving past the paper factories.

Also - there is a slight outward denting where the crossbars hit the canvas. At first I figured it would work out, but now there is a little paint on it and those areas are flat and it is a glaring problem. Help!

The odor is probably the oil primer on the linen, or maybe it's the sizing underneath it. My oil-pre-primed linens have a smell when you just open them up from the tube.

Is the linen sagging or does the brace bar protrude? Want to post a photo?

Kim,

I disconnect those cross bar supports until the painting is finished. I don't like to feel them back there while I'm painting. When you drag across them they leave that funny effect. You can reconnect them after your finished.

The smell may be triacle from the mouse.

I dont know if I explained it well enough. The linen is not hitting the crossbar now - even when I paint. You can see the outward denting in certain light where it did in shipping, but is very minimal. But - the real problem is when I paint - those parellel lines are drying matte. There is no obvious cause and the supplier says he has never heard of this. He says the canvas is primed long before if ever gets stretched...I dont know. it can only be that something about the crossbar changed the primer somehow in regards to how it accepts the paint. I'll post a very blurry photo - but you can see the lines. Anyway - he is going to send another it sounds like.

Mike - I dont think I can take the crossbar off - it is all smooth. I'll have another look, but that is a good idea. And what is triacle?? I dont know how many mice we have, but they are these tiny little field mice that I started hearing when it started getting cold. There is a storage area between the house and the studio - and that part is open to the rafters....so they own that area. We've caught a couple so far with traps, but I am thinking there are a lot of them and they might win the war...

Kim,

I haven't a clue about the lines. As far as removing the brace, I take a hammer and tap one side until the little stapples give way and leave the other side attached. Then I bend the free side back until it's out of the way then stapple it back when I'm finished.

As for the mice, I would set up an electric heater in the shed. Leave some cheese and crackers, maybe a little chardonnay. The only way I know to keep them out of where you are is to make them more comfortable where you aren't. Of course they could knock the heater over and burn down the shed, which would be like burning down the shed to get rid of mice. Either way their numbers should be reduced.

Never mind about the treacle.

Kim, treacle is an ingredient in licorice about which I went off-topic a while back on the Forum. Mike is trying to bait me again.

Maybe it's the sizing or grounds that smell bad.

Anyway, I don't use linen anymore because I found a more durable material that I think it would last more than linen - it's synthetic canvas. Why don't you try it? Buy one in your local fabric store and make your own support for painting.

xander,
www.xndrcalceta.4t.com

Kim,

My guess would be that the canvas priming has been rubbed off from contact with another canvas while stored or under transportation. If that

They are sending more linen to re-stetch it myself. (*&&^^**!!@@#).

I did get some of the crease out by wetting it, but the matte areas are still there with lines. Oh well - I was only 25 hours into it. ugh.

Oh yeah - and more importantly - the priming does not smell bad. I forgot about a trap and we caught a mouse! One down, sounds like 50 more to go. I think he was there awhile --- eww. I bet you all want to come visit my studio now dontcha? :D

That's really strange - it is so unlike him.

My new years resolution -- bait more mice, less people.

Last years resolution -- never move to the beach.