Its a sheet of heavy black canvas that I was fortunate enough to find lying on the pavement one morning as I set of for the Cass, just right for the paintings I am doing at the moment on black backgrounds. This is the first time I've stretched canvas, have previously grounded my work either on cardboard, preprepared or recycled canvases, so I've been learning as I go along. I bought the stretching tool a few weeks ago, and finally got a chance to use it.
My method was to staple the canvas midway along on of the long side, the stretch & staple it on the opposite side. Moving round to the shorter sides I did the same thing, so that the canvas was held at the midpoint on all four sides. I then went back to the starting point, stretched & stapled it a couple of inches to the left, and again on the opposite side. I did the same thing on the short sides, and once I had four new fastenings in place, I did exactly the same on the right hand side. Then the left, then right, left, right, working y way around the canvas until eventually I arrived at the corners, which I folded the canvas & pinned it down.
When I finished, the canvas seemed as taught as a drum skin, and I was really pleased, so I sized it with 25% PVA in water. Unfortunately, when I returned to it a couple of days later, the surface had slackened in some places, and had many dimples & waves from where the PVA had dried. I asked for some advice on how best to resolve it, and Pete said the best thing was to unpick it and stretch it again. "Show it whose the Daddy" were his words, and then once I'd got it nice and taught again, spray the back of it with warm water to try & even out the dimples. It seems to have worked, but I'm wondering how it will be when I look tomorrow. Will it have slackened again? If so, what is the best way to stretch it? What if anything am I doing wrong? Like so many things I have done during my degree, stretching canvases is another learning process, and the best thing I can do is ask for advice and get help when I need it. I will update this with some pictures of the results in due time. Watch this space.
03/04/2014....When I came into the studio this morning, I was pleased to find that my efforts have paid off! The canvas had remained taught over the weekend, and I was able to get two coats of black acryclic down on its surface as a base for the next piece, [which I've uploaded a sketch of below].
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