In the second of three articles on painting in oils, Andrew Field uses the sketchbook studies from last time and demonstrates how to prepare your support for optimum oil paintings
Whilst there are no rules for creating the perfect support for your oils, there are certain methods and concepts that I like to follow that are acknowledged by fellow artists and conservationists. The way I work in the studio fits quite well with the recommended approach in that you should wait for the layers of oil paint to dry first before applying fresh paint. As I tend to work in short bursts dictated by the commitments of teaching and raising a young family, allowing time for the layers to dry is beneficial for the surface of the painting to become stable.
You may have seen examples of old oil paintings that appear to have cracked and this is because thinner layers of paint were applied over thicker layers of paint when they were still wet. The cracking is caused by the change in density and elasticity as the thin layer moves with the thicker layer below, leading to cracking and eventually splitting.
When starting a painting it is therefore really important to establish a structure with careful consideration given to the painting ground and the support onto which the oil is applied. The ideal surface is a primed ground as this equalises the surface of the support. Priming canvas involves losing the grain or texture of the canvas so that the oil paint layers that are applied, lie down flat and evenly.
The ideal support
The ideal painting ground is even in application, equalises the support and has a slightly absorbent surface. The absorbency is very important because when the oil absorbs slightly into the surface, it provides a strong foundation for the other layers to lock into. If the oil paint doesn’t do this, then there’s the possibility that the oil paint will stay on the surface and will shear away from the ground. There are many acrylic-based primers that are manufactured with the aim of achieving a semi-absorbent painting ground but I prefer to use the primers and extensive gesso range by Wallace Seymour Fine Art products; I trust the high quality of the materials and they are made in England.
The term ‘gesso’ usually suggests that the priming has some absorbency in the same way that gesso made from chalk and glue is absorbent. A gesso-based primer is therefore relatively more absorbent than an acrylic-based primer. However, there are no hard-and-fast rules and you need to test various primers to be sure
