Painting materials
By Ewan Klein
I find it easier to take risks when I’m painting on paper rather than something more solid such as board. But the paper is nice paper: Fabriano pittura, which is heavyweight (400 gsm) and a bit textured. I’ve been buying batches of 50 x 70 cm sheets and cutting them up as the mood takes me. Although it is already white and (apparently) sized, I’ve also been adding two coats of Michael Harding acrylic primer before painting.
However, what happens if I end up with a painting that I like and want to share? For this, I took inspiration from a helpful post by Sally Hirst on mounting work on paper onto a panel . Briefly, the paper is glued to a plywood board (specifically 5.5 mm thick sheets of moisture resistant plywood). In practice, it’s a bit more complicated, in order to avoid the risk of support induced discolouration (SID). I am probably too paranoid about this but here are the main steps I followed:
- Cut the board to size – I ended up doing this with a jigsaw, using a clamped wooden batten as a guide
- Apply one coat of acrylic sealant to the reverse of the paper
- Apply two coats of sealant to the plywood, with special attention to the edges
- Glue the paper to the plywood using neural pH glue (e.g. Lineco) and keep weighted down overnight
- Trim the paper to size
- Colour the edge of the board and cut edge of the paper with acrylic using a colour that aligns well with the painting
None of this is particularly complicated, but each stage requires some degree of time.