Home › Forums › Explore Media › Oil Painting › The Technical Forum › Priming polyester canvas for oil painting
- This topic has 7 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 2 months ago by Marc Kingsland.
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August 27, 2023 at 12:23 pm #1524246
Hi dear WC community,
So, i’ve recently bought a Raw 100% polyester canvas roll and i have some questions regarding priming it for oil Paint and Im hereby requesting your expertise on this subject ?
Whats the best (archival) way of doing it? I have gamblin PVA Size and their oil ground, and i was thinking of giving the canvas a layer of PVA Size and the oil ground, not using any acrylic gesso!
Is there a Better way of doing this ? ?
Thanks In advanceAugust 27, 2023 at 5:45 pm #1524282There is no need to size polyester canvas.
You can either use the oil ground or the acrylic ground directly.
It is generally better to keep the layers in a painting as simple as possible, so I would opt for an oil ground because acrylic is foreign to both oil and polyester. I would shy away from using PVA for the same reason, although it would probably be fine.Ron
www.RonaldFrancis.comAugust 28, 2023 at 1:48 am #1524318Thanks Ron, yes from what I’ve read the polyester wouldnt need to be sized, but i wasnt sure if the oil ground would ahdere well directly to the polyester.
Did anyone did this and can Share the experience please?
Oh and Ron how Many oil ground layers do you think i should give?
August 28, 2023 at 1:40 pm #1524375Sizing polyester isn’t required to prevent acid effects from the drying oils, but I do personally feel it’s required to stiffen the canvas. If you correctly judge the canvas support won’t be subject to movement, then perhaps the aging and thus often embrittled paint will be fine. Oil ground should stick well to raw polyester canvas.
I however have always deemed it necessary to size polyester for added stiffness. My method is to apply an acrylic size or medium (in more recent years Golden’s GAC 200) and then coat this with at least one layer of acrylic gesso before an oil ground or forgo the oil priming and just add more acrylic gesso. I don’t trust the oil ground to adhere to the acrylic sized canvas. Though it might be ok to do this, I doubt its engineered for this.
insert pithy comment here.
August 28, 2023 at 6:19 pm #1524403I don’t trust the oil ground to adhere to the acrylic sized canvas.
By this I mean (to prevent possible misunderstanding), for the oil ground to stick to acrylic sizing alone without the acrylic gesso.
insert pithy comment here.
August 29, 2023 at 4:06 am #1524425Sizing polyester isn’t required to prevent acid effects from the drying oils, but I do personally feel it’s required to stiffen the canvas.
1st thanks for your replys. Yes this was the main reason (adding stiffness) i wanted to add something more than the oil ground. But if i have to add gesso aswell its defeating the purpose of simplifying the layers of the suport ?
I Guess Ill have to do some testing on ahderence.
Btw i have another question regarding storing the canvas supports (I was using Wood and ACM only, so no experience with unstreched fabrics), can I Paint on the polyester unstreched? And then if I dont want to glue it to a board or something, is it ok to store the artwork In a roll or something like that?
August 29, 2023 at 3:24 pm #1524495Personally, I’d stretch the canvas first to paint on and then roll up later.
insert pithy comment here.
August 29, 2023 at 3:28 pm #1524496But if i have to add gesso aswell its defeating the purpose of simplifying the layers of the suport ?
I imagine the PVA size doesn’t require acrylic gesso on it. Or at least Gamblin doesn’t believe it does. I’ve never used it.
insert pithy comment here.
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