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Hello all,
This thread is interesting to me because I've been doing all my paintings on various types of panels. In my case the motives were stinginess and ignorance. Through a business connection I have nearly unlimited access to plywood, MDF (medium density fibreboard) and Masonite panels in a variety of wood species, thicknesses etc. at the best possible price: free. The ignorance refers to the fact that it never occurred to me that there might be any problems associated with painting on them. In fact, the only significant problem , of which I was already aware, is that on panels larger than about 11" x 14" it is wise to seal the backside of the panel with either a varnish or acrylic sealer so that cupping of the panel (due to uptake of atmospheric moisture) does not occur. Alternatively, the back can be sealed by laminating Formica or backer sheet to the back. Birch or maple plywood in 1/2" thickness goes for under $ 1/sq. ft. around here, 1/4" MDF for about $ 0.40 / sq. ft., etc., so it's not all that expensive to buy. William may have used Finnish or Baltic birch, which has a lot more laminations and can be quite expensive. In any event, Mark, it's probably worth a trip to a local custom cabinet fabricator to ask if they have any fall-off pieces that they'll give you. Usually they generate a fair amount of scrap that they'll just give you if you ask nicely. Plywood and MDF start to get pretty heavy in larger sized panels, so stick to the thinner stuff if you're planning to paint big. There's a whole lot of opinions on panels on various painting discussion groups.
I usually prime the side to be painted with 4-5 coats of acrylic gesso and then sand to the desired level of smoothness. What caught my attention was William's technique of clear finishing the wood and then painting on that, leaving the wood grain showing through. Having just spent some frustrating hours on two paintings with wood wainscoating in the backgrounds, tediously doing faux woodgrain in oils, I'm wondering if it would be possible to use this technique to incorporate the natural woodgrain into the painting. Would it look too perfect? Could you use stains to render the different values of different planes? I've never heard of anyone doing this, have you?
William - Beautiful painting, beautiful subject!
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