Stretching Pre-Primed Canvas

[Carol Norton]

As I just stretched a canvas with the portrait already on it, I would like to know if anyone else does this regularly. Are there any problems that I should know about before I do it again? Thank you for any and all advice.

[Michele Rushworth]

I would think there would be great potential for distortion in doing that, if there is the least bit of uneven tension in the stretching process.

[Linda Brandon]

Carol, I usually glue mine to panels when I have a "keeper" on unstretched canvas. I varnish after I glue it to the panel, though I'm not sure it would make any difference if you varnished first. I think there's a thread somewhere on the Forum about gluing linen to panels.

[Sharon Knettell]

Carol,

That is a definite NO!

The stretching process creates innumerable fissures in the surface of the paint that could lead to cracking in the future.

[Carol Norton]

Thank you, Sharon. I will NEVER, EVER DO IT AGAIN!!!

[Claudemir Bonfim]

This is a very interesting thread Garth, someday I'll try to use pliers, sometimes I stretch many canvasses on the same day.

I don't use tacks, I use a stapler instead, do guys see any problem about it?

[Juan Martinez]

Hi everyone,

Here are my two cents worth on the stretching after-the-fact issue, if I may...

Sharon,
If the painting is new and if it has been painted on pre-ground canvas (both of which are my assumptions regarding Carol's painting) then I think the after-the-fact stretching shouldn't cause any problems, so long as it was evenly done and didn't distort the image. As you know, paintings are removed from stretchers and then rolled for shipping and then re-stretched all the time. Of course, the initial thing was already stretched. But, really the same would apply to pre-primed canvas which is factory-stretched. The key to doing it, as I said, would be to take considerable care in uniformly stretching and not to over-stretch. Young oil paint films and grounds are quite flexible. Perhaps you've had a bad experience with this, yourself, but I have never seen fissures develop in the paint or ground layer from stretching an after-the-fact oil painting done on pre-primed canvas, and I've seen a fair number of such paintings.

Linda
I'd say that gluing after varnishing might present at least one problem; as you normally have to apply pressure to the surface to let the glue do its work, that could scar or mar the varnish. That's about it, though. What do you think? Also for anyone who uses a lot of heavy impasto and surface effects in their paint, gluing after-the-fact is not a good idea because that same surface pressure may flatten out their sought-after paint effects.

By the way, I use those tacks, too. I've even applied them cosmetically to a panel painting just for their nice look!

Best.

Juan

[Carol Norton]

Juan, thank you , thank you, THANK YOU. I had planned to glue the canvas to masonite instead of stretching it. HOWEVER, its size seemed a bit too large to do that (17 " x 18 ") and the buyer is older (hmph..not too old!) and conservative. (a retired cop and his wife). It was recommended that the conventional canvas would be more easily accepted by the "Commish". And (...drum roll...) it WAS. I was so very concerned that the belated stretching would be a problem, that your post was a real relief as I didn't want to do it OVER. The canvas was taut and evenly stretched as my helpful husband helped while I "supervised". I thought it looked perfect and the "Commish" loved it. It looks as though I may be doing a number of other police officers from the same area. As an outcropping of this, I find that I would enjoy doing a series about officers in their work environment. (showing the brotherhood so frequently portrayed in the fire fighter genre).

Thank you again. I am seriously enjoying your articles in International Artist on drawing.

Carol

[Juan Martinez]

Carol,

You're most welcome, and thank you for the compliments on my articles.

Best of luck with your "Boys, and Girls, in Blue" series.

Juan

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Juan,

I don't use too much pressure when I glue my panels to my completed paintings; I just throw on some big art books. My paintings are neither super-smooth nor super-chunky so I don't see scratching of varnish or flattening of impasto. (I use Gamvar varnish with some wax medium to dull the shine a litte, maybe this helps?)

Primed linen taped to a board is great for open studio settings. I am really picky about placement on paintings and I get upset at myself when I'm off an inch or so. I can recrop later to a square, oval, horizontal format, even a circle if I feel like it later on.

I have a closet full of rolled up paintings on linen. How old is too old to stretch, do you think?

(And I love your IA series, too!)