What materials, paints and canvas make the best quality paintings that last?

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We use only the best! We want you to be able to pass my artwork down for future generations. It has taken decades of research to learn. I am happy to say that even my older artwork on different canvases has stood the test of time, and I have never seen any problems. (Your local high humidity can cause any stretched canvas to wrinkle. They can usually be tightened by gently tapping the corner back pegs, or lightly misting the back of the canvas with a spray bottle of distilled water, and let it completely dry).

I now use only oil primed Belgian linen, usually Claessens, and use a museum quality archival glue to bond and buffer it onto Russian birch hardwood boards. This eliminates the wrinkling and sagging possible with stretched canvas. Very large paintings will be on professionally stretched canvas. When possible, I even coat the wood bars with an acrylic primer to stop acid migration onto the canvas back. I also coat the inside of my frames with a clear acrylic, for the same reason. I do occasionally use some archival Centurion or Raphael panels with oil primed Belgian linen. They promise they will outlast us for centuries.

Why is oil primed linen the best canvas for oil paints? First, linen is a beautiful, naturally textured weave, not uniform like cotton canvas. It is a long, tough and durable fiber made from flax. Paintings that have lasted for centuries are on oil primed linen. Secondly, oil paints will bond better to an oil priming. (Think of salad dressings--oil and water don't mix without help). We don't cut corners, this canvas is very expensive!

What is the basic rule for creating oil paintings that last? It is called "Fat over Lean". I was personally instructed by Winsor-Newton's own head paint chemist, Wendell Upchurch. He said that the first layers are the leanest, but never over-thinned). After each layer dries, you increase the amount of oil in each layer. I won't bother you with the formulas, but the common sense reason is that the underneath layers need to dry as fast as the top layers, so the layers will cure evenly and not crack later.( Paintings done "wet in wet", that is, completed in one or two days while all the paint is wet, don't have to be concerned with oil amounts, because the paint will all dry as one unit, together).

K. Marita Walizer Art

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