Help! Please. Stretcher strips bowing.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Recently, Mr. Whitaker emailed me about the subject and gave me the following tips:

• 1. Wrap your linen around your stretcher bars - not too tight - and staple the linen to the bars, about every four inches or so. This is temporary!

• 2. Brush on a coat of acrylic medium - whatever brand you prefer - Winsor&Newton or whatever.

• 3. After that clear coat dries, sand it lightly with fine sandpaper.

• 4. Doesn't hurt to brush on a second coat, and sand again, but not absolutely necessary to apply two coats.

• 5. Brush on two or three coats of acrylic gesso - thinned to the consistency of milk or cream. Sand between coats.

• 6. Notice that traditional canvases primed with flake white are relatively smooth - not too much weave showing. You want to fill your canvas with enough gesso coats to fill a lot of the canvas weave. Do this to personal taste.

• 7. When the canvas is dry, restretch it drum tight. Some folks play a hand-held hair dryer on the back of the canvas while they stretch. A canvas stretched dry will keep from getting slack much better than a canvas full of humidity.

Hope it helps.