Diana K. Gibson

In the never ending quest to find the ultimate painting surface I often experiment by making my own oil painting canvas panels.  It does entail some work, patience and time.  While it would be much easier and quicker to buy readymade stretched canvas or rolls of primed canvas, the process of making the panels makes the artwork very personal. You are involved with its lifecycle from the very beginning even before it is painted.  And because of the time and energy invested in making each canvas panel there seems to be a bit more mindfulness involved in the painting process.  To date I haven’t found that ultimate painting surface and so I continue to strive for it experimenting and maybe one day hopefully soon the magic moment will happen when at last perfection is achieved.  But until that moment, as the saying goes “if at first you don’t succeed, try try again.”

Over the years many of my students have asked me how to tone a canvas. Often I would verbally explain how to prepare the canvas but found it was simply better to actually physically take a canvas, prepare the tone and demonstrate the process. Today my student Kay was at the studio and had some canvas she wanted to tone. I took the opportunity to show her the process and thankfully I had my camera on hand to document the simple steps of toning a canvas.                                         Start with clean stretched canvas. Lay it on a flat steady surface be it a floor or a large table. Using your palette or taboret, mix up a batch of neutral color. The amount of paint mixed will depend on the size of your canvas or the quantity of canvas you are planning to prepare.                                                                  Taking your palette knife, scoop up some of the mixed paint and gently smear it across the canvas. Then taking a clean rag, pour some odorless turpenoi...