Custom canvas size

[Michele Rushworth]

Kim, you wrote:

I really hate stretching my own.

I had not stretched a canvas since college (a LONG time ago!) until last year and thought it would be difficult. Even in college I stretched only a few canvases.

Then I started to really enjoy using the Claessens linen which comes on a roll. I began stretching my own canvases and found it to be surprisingly easy. In the past year or so I have stretched at least a couple dozen canvases, up to 30x40" in size. I like the flexibility of being able to have a canvas in any size I want, when I want it, and with top quality linen available in a wide range of textures and weights. I can also easily remove and restretch a painting, too, if I need to.

Kim, I'm not sure if you've stretched a bunch of canvases lately and just don't enjoy the process, or if you may not have much experience with it and may be thinking it's a difficult thing to do. It's really not hard, and to me, well worth doing myself.

[Kimberly Dow]

Thanks all-

Chris, I have never used a panel; I will have to try that. I guess I am leery of using if for the first time on something important. Linda had also mentioned ABS panels and I tried to find some locally, but did not. I am going to read that link you posted again.

Michelle, maybe I have not been shown or learned how to do it right, but I am never happy with mine that I stretch - they are just not tight enough and I may not have enough patience. My husband does it for me and they are better, but still not perfect. Besides, waiting on him is torture. I agree I should learn to do this better. That's a goal I wrote down for this year as a matter of fact, but I am procrastinating.

Steven, whenever you have that information on an Austin company that does it I'd love to hear.

Thanks!

[Chris Saper]

Dear Kim,

Perhaps I am using the term "panel" a bit too loosely. When I say "panel", I mean a firm surface, either directly affixed to, or adhered on a rigid support. In opposition to the "springboardy" quality of a stretched canvas, where behind the linen lies only air.

I know many painters who are impassioned about each type of surface. Like most things, there isn't a right or wrong, just the thing that you personally prefer. I like the rigid surface, but I can name a dozen painters who hate it.