The Painting of Oils-(Not Revisited)

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MerpsMom

MerpsMom

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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Leawood, Kansas USA
Can someone out there in our wideworld of artists and knowledgables point me to a source for procedures in painting oils? We have Orton and Jim and all the others who have participated in FACTS for works of art on paper, but is there something up-to-date for other media, specifically oils? I have and have read Paul Frederick's books, etc., but is there anything new? Will someone give me some professional basics so I'm not giving out incorrect or half-truth information?

Too many questions...again? Inquiring minds need this.
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Ok, MM, I'll bite, There isn't enough money in this type of art for those selling it to care about quality. That is the problem that gets dumped on your counter.

Oils need to be stretched on the grain, similarly to cross stitch. If you stretch them on the bias or something close to it, you will get wrinkles. These cheap (no other word for it) paintings are on thin canvas with an inferior, thin smear of paint. They won't take a lot of wear & tear, not like a truly good painting, Paintings should NEVER be painted on unstretched canvas.

So, in order to get it to look exactly the way the customer wants, you'll probably have to take it to a conservator and have them mount it to another canvas, then stretch it for you. It will probably cost you more that the whole job is worth, including the art.

Probably the least damaging thing you could do in order to get the image in the position you want, would be to hinge it (with multiple hinges on the top), mat it and top it with glass. Of course, then you loose the oil painting effect. The unexceptable way would be to mount it to perfect mount and just center and trim it the way you want and be done with it (Crescent would probably make more on the perfect mount than the artist will get for the painting.)

Jo
 
I'll probably be cast into the firey depths of framer's **** for this but I've done it. I've taken those unstretched, unsized, painted-right-to-the-edge-of-the-canvas, tourist pieces and dry mounted them.

Kit

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Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana
 
Kit, I don't ever use heat on the oil paintings, but I have been known to use the vacu-glue to mount them. (The one thing you have to watch for is any dementional paint... it does not do well in the press.)
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Sue
 
If EVERY piece of artwork painted by EVERY person who calls themselves artists were to become VALUABLE overnight, the art market world would be thrown out of kilter (old Scottish phrase) and there would be NO art market. Yah, yah, I know, we are supposed to act like EVERYTHING in the world is SO valuable, or potentially valuable, or valuable when the artist dies tragically, or young, or whatever. And I do firmly believe in the concept of living my life for the seventh generation, BUT, take away my CPF, I have mounted those tourist things too!!!!
And what about "starving artist sales?" You can't call THAT stuff "ART" and yet some people LOVE it and they just want it FLAT!
I have actually tried to "debunk" that stuff by describing how it is "manufactured" and some people don't really care, they "like the picture."
I think if we are going to try to save the world, there are better things to "save" than cheap paintings.
Also, we are at the mercy of our customers, for they are always right, and they have not always been coming to us long enough to be properly trained.

By the way, in my painting course at college in the dark ages, I was taught to stretch an unprimed canvas, prime it with at least two coats of gesso (one in each direction) and then to start painting.
 
Well, for sure, y'all have reinforced my belief in stretching first, then priming, then painting. But, unfortunately, I must indeed treat these as valuable which, I guess, to the customer who paid $1,200 for it thinks it is. So...

Here's what we do: we use Fredrix bars (they're straight most of the time), we make sure the bars are put together on the "square" by measuring diagonally all ways as well as vertically and horizontally. We use stay-staples to hold the trueness while stretching. We use stainless steel staples, starting the process by laying the canvas on the bars to see what is the best use of the painted image. Then it's N,S,E,W, with diagonally placed staples. Then outwards from each until the piece is completed. Corners are neatly folded and stapled. Pliers are used unless it's delicate, then it's fingers.

Now, all this above said, I still would like a book or something to enlighten me about what a "real" artist does. They stretch on linen? cotton? anything else acceptable, and if so, what? They prime, then paint, and wait how long for drying? Permissible to add drier? When to add surface varnish, if needed, or is it always needed? Yada, yada, etc.?

I'm even boring myself.
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Merps,
I paintin oils. If you have the Fredrick's book You should be ok. Not much has changed except that an artist can buy the mediums and driers instead of mixing them from old recipes. There are some new products on the market that allow mixing of alklds and oils together.
The bigest changes are in the techniques. Artists will break all the rules when it come to finding a way to express their vision, A university setting will also encourage the students to experiment with no regard to longevity. But remember daVinci's Last supper was an oil fresco expriment. So I quess experimenting with oils is nothing new.

You might send for a Utrecht Catalog. They have good information on paints and mediums. www.utrechtart.com.

Recently there was a program on Ver-Meer on PBS. It was an excellent discussion on his painting techniques. It showed how he used underpainting, transparent and translucent glazes and colors. It is available on tape.


best of luck

Mitch
 
Mitch, I sent you an e-mail question, but your address seems to be incorrect. Will you send it to me, or post a new one?
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Maybe I'm missing the gist of the question, but I think what makes situations sticky is that even among those who are classically trained very few artists take the time to perform all the steps that should be taken to prepare a canvas. Leonardo and those guys had apprentices to sand between many coats of gesso, and stir simmering hide glue and all that. Contemporary artists don't have time to wait for a canvas to dry thoroughly (and I mean 6-12 months thoroughly) before varnishing it.

When I was a painting major I had the good fortune to have a job in a frame shop/art supply shop working for a very generous man who gave me the cut off pieces of lovely belgian linen or good quality cotton canvas. He and his father both taught me to stretch it properly and prepare it. People in school with me painted on whatever they could get their hands on, even closeout upholstery fabric, sheets, oil paintings on illustration boards, all sorts of curly nightmares.

So, MM, I'm not sure a book explaining how it's supposed to be done would help since only a handful of people even do that. Better would be a magnifying glass and a guidebook that would help us figure out exactly what it is that's in front of us.

I did have a book at that time that I will try and track down called something like The Artist in the Studio. It had diagrams for drying racks and and had formulas for thinning varnish and tips in the proper consistency for gesso and plaster. Many of the techniques have fallen out of favor because realism (other than hyper-realism) is sneered at. Beautifully crafted paintings are not usually edgy enough. Nevermind the economic improbability of being able to sell a painting that took 5 months to make and 7 months to dry for anything close to what it costs to live for that long. . .

My but I do go on sometimes
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kit aka emrr:
I'll probably be cast into the firey depths of framer's **** for this but I've done it. I've taken those unstretched, unsized, painted-right-to-the-edge-of-the-canvas, tourist pieces and dry mounted them.

Kit

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Meet you there!
 
Thanx to all of you: and you know, I think I know much more than I thought I did, and that I'm making this more complicated than it should be. I've covered all the bases, read everything, talked to a bunch of "higher ups", and now you all have chimed in. So,I'm all better with the thing and will go about it with pleasantly secure fortitude, because that's what it takes to satisfy my perfectionism on these diddly-danged things.

Kudos once again to the board...
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