Pre-Coated Canvas Age

[Shayla]

If eighteen-year-old gesso-coated canvas on a roll looks great and stretches great, is it fine? Or did it secretly get too old and will flake off in three weeks? (In which case, we'll wish the subject of this post had been coconut).

P.S. It's nice, heavy cotton duck. Quack.

 

[Prospero]

I would have thought it would be fine. It could always be given another coat or two of primer before being worked on.

 

[Al B]

It should be fine, but I think the less primer or others things you add at this point, the better.

 

[Gilder]

My opinion is it doesn't matter if you add more gesso or not, most likely it is an acrylic gesso which is very flexible.
It should be fine.

 

[JFeig]

It might be that the canvas was primed with an oil based "gesso" primer. Oil and water do not mix well.
Now that most wall paint is a form of water based acrylic, people forget that old walls painted with oil based paint had to be sealed for the new water based paints to stick properly.

 

[Shayla]

It might be that the canvas was primed with an oil based "gesso" primer. Oil and water do not mix well.
Now that most wall paint is a form of water based acrylic, people forget that old walls painted with oil based paint had to be sealed for the new water based paints to stick properly.

Thank you for writing this. Much appreciated.

 

[Shayla]

Yay!!!! I called my former boss, who bought it, and she said it's water-based gesso. Said everything she saw in the store was water-based, and she didn't even know it could be oil based. She's an oil painter, so has more experience around that than I do. (Dirk, if you're reading this, around means with. I know it doesn't really, but it's modern talk. Or is it post modern talk? Post post modern? What comes next? Better get back to the post....).

So, were oil-based gessoes from way back in the day, or are they still made?