Painting on Textured Surfaces

Today I want to share the surfaces I prefer to work on and how I prepare. 

I love to work on canvas board. If you are experimenting a lot, these are inexpensive and easy to prepare because they are already primed. Stretched canvas can be costly so we can feel a little 'precious' about messing them up. Canvas boards can bend as the paint dries, so they need to be stored flat. I use canvas boards because the surface is perfect for the effect I want. They are firm to work on and can take fine detail.

I like a textured surface for some paintings. Here's a video of how I get my textures, also on my website www.lindabirkinshawart.net . I spread acrylic gesso over the board then press crinkled cellophane across the wet gesso. This creates a lovely texture to paint tree branches, rocks, undergrowth. 

Here I've used a wooden panel, another good surface to work on which is strong and can take lots of paint. But these are smooth with no surface texture, so I add my own.

I used the textures created to paint a heather moorland.

You can see how I've used the textures to make rocks and the heather foreground. This is quite a small, quick painting, 30 x 30 cm, but of course the textured gesso has to be left overnight to dry before it can be painted on.

Sometimes I take days or even weeks over a painting, then abandon it. So, I like to do some smaller quick ones like this and not mess around too much trying to improve them. Sometimes paintings need to be left alone. It can be hard to know when to stop. Overworking can really spoil the free feel of a painting.

I have loved to work with colour since my days in art college in the early seventies. The colours of the landscape fascinated me and I couldn't relate to the dull browns and greens used in many paintings. Working on children's books later on meant I could use bright colours as much as I wanted. So, discovering fluid art, or poured paintings, quite recently meant I could use fabulous colours, but not worry about realistic artwork. I will include one of my acrylic poured paintings here and explain tomorrow how trying these techniques can help us to really enjoy using our favourite colours without the hang-ups of realistic painting.

This one is called 'Water' simply because it looks like waves and brings to mind a mysterious undersea world.

I'd love to have your comments or questions, as chatting about painting with other artists or those who love art is my favourite thing!