Latest posts by michael wilson (see all)
- JORDAN RIVER - February 5, 2019
- Inspired Art - August 2, 2018
- Waiting for Inspiration - July 31, 2018
- The Bridge between Painting and Photography - July 31, 2018
Serious painters today, especially those who use the medium of oils have several surface choices. Canvas, either store bought or stretched by the artist is the most common. I have painted many paintings with canvas and on linen. The linen of course is a tighter weave and more suited to portraits. When I began to paint abstracts switching to hardboard became the obvious better choice for me. 
The abstracts that I paint require multiple approaches to medium. These include brush and appliques and collage and tissue paper varnished on, but also the use of hard squeege to drag across the pigments. I often press quite hard. This pushes the paint into the primed board and drags off any excess pigment. This effect can create some stunning effects. It can be used selectively or across the entire surface. All of these effects and methods of creating a painting could not be done on canvas. The visual result of painting on hardboard is dramatically different. The smooth surface allows for this dragging of press squeeges but also for very distinct fine lines.
An extra bonus in using the primed panels is that a piece that does not meet muster (falls short of the intentions) can be simply sanded back to the original surface and then re-primed. I will often pull out a painting a month or two after completion and make an analysis if I accomplished what I had intended. If not the entire panel can be re-cycled. This cannot be done so well with canvas – the heavy brush marks inevitably remain.
Buy the panels, cutting them (I use a good grade of 1/2 inch plywood) then attaching them to stripping to keep them from warping, then priming, then sanding and then priming again is a tedious and time- consuming process. I try to do four to six at one time or about a day and half of effort. It is worth it but it is the only real surface that can accomodate the multiple applications which I utilize.