Canvas

”As a creative person, you want to start with a blank canvas.” -Bibhu Mohapatra

As an artist, your creative inspiration will remain hidden unless it has a surface on which to be expressed and visualised. So besides brushes and paint mediums, a blank canvas is an art supply basic. Ready-to-paint stretched canvases or canvas boards come in a wide range of sizes and surface characteristics. For oils, acrylics, gouache and mixed media, the durability and longevity properties of an artist’s canvas are worth the investment. Not all blank canvases are primed, but art shops generally stock affordable deep edge and standard edge stretched cotton artist’s canvases that are primed with acrylic gesso or the more expensive linen canvases that are primed with oil. For novice artists, a stretched cotton canvas - standard edge or deep edge - is a good starting point; they always look professional and can be hung up without needing to be framed as soon as your masterpiece is complete.

A stretched blank canvas comes with little wooden wedges which are designed to be hammered into the 4 internal corners at the back to create tension to the surface of the canvas. This tautness helps you control your brushstrokes. Canvas boards are affordable, lightweight, easy to transport and show off brushstrokes really well. They are a wonderful surface for practising techniques and strokes. All blank canvases have varying textures - deep to shallow tooth - making them receptive to the pigment on the brush. By adding layers of gesso - you can smooth out the texture as to your preference. “An artist does his most difficult work when he steps back from the blank canvas and thinks about what he is going to create.” -Michelangelo So unwrap your blank canvas and follow in the footsteps of the masters and unleash your artistic spirit.