Duck!

Its the little things you miss, and you don't always realise how much you miss them.

Since I restarted painting I've been buying ready stretched canvas, mostly because I am so severely restricted for space. I have been ever more frustrated with the quality of ready made canvas available. Locally it is shocking, and mail order is a problem because you can't see before you buy. So today I thought "enough!" and ripped the shoddy, tissue-thin canvas off some stretchers, went to the haberdasher's, bought some cotton duck and set to work.

When I trained I was taught to tension one of the long sides of the canvas first, then tack the centre of  the opposite side, then the centre of the two short sides before working out from those centres to the corners and it works just fine. It is fast and with two people you can easily get enough tension into unprimed canvas for pictures 6 feet across without any special tools if you make a careful choice when you size the canvas. Today I tried a different approach.

Whilst searching the internet for well-priced canvas I had stumbled across this method of stretching canvas - working from the corners in seems utterly ridiculous until you try it. I found I needed to tension at every tack twice before stapling so it took a long time but Oh My! the end result is so even. As I write this I am waiting for the second coat of sizing to dry properly before adding gesso, but it doesn't matter where I tap the canvas - corner, edge or middle - it rings with the same tone. The weave follows the edge of the stretchers with barely any distortion. I feel like its Christmas Eve and I want to open my presents! It is so obvious that these canvases will feel exquisite under my brushes. I don't care how late I have to stay up, the three coats of primer are going on tonight. Just looking at them, feeling the difference in softness, strength and texture; I cannot imagine ever letting anyone else stretch canvas for me again.