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What do you do with the sides of the canvas?

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Lucian Hodoboc

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Some artists continue the painting on the sides of the canvas, others paint them a certain color (or black / white)... What do you do with the sides of the canvas? Is there a particular thing you like to do to them, such as to write secret messages and paint over them for the posterity to discover?

Alan Bickley

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I’ve seen it done, and there’s artist’s on this site that continue the composition around the edges of a stretched canvas. But it looks horrible and totally pointless, reminds me of the tacky wrap-around canvas prints that we see in some stores… No self-respecting professional artist would dream of doing it, it’s a definite NO! I leave it white, and I don’t mind if there’s a few splash marks etc on show - it’s an original, you get splash marks!

Sylvia Evans

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No self respecting amateur artist would continue around the sides...plain white.  

Anthony Knight

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Well - ah-hah - as usual, I have been known to cross into the realms of cack-handed amateurism and paint the edges, both continuing the image on deep-edged canvas and painting a uniform colour on others. I use canvas boards now so it’s not something I need to consider. I’d say do what works best for you.

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by Anthony Knight

Waddesdon Grotesque

Andrew Roles

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Well - ah-hah - as usual, I have been known to cross into the realms of crack-handed amateurism and paint the edges, both continuing the image on deep-edged canvas and painting a uniform colour on others. I use canvas boards now so it’s not something I need to consider. I’d say do what works best for you.
Anthony Knight on 15/07/2022 14:31:59
I'm with Anthony - go with the flow.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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I dislike that practice - quite a lot!  But then, I'm not very fond of deep gallery canvases, because they're hard to frame: and I think paintings need framing.  Painting the edges is fairly pointless anyway: it doesn't add to the picture in any way, because you don't see it when viewing the canvas straight on: and I'd really rather not see it at all.  

Sylvia Evans

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There you go ,,All sorts of opinions.  I like deep / box  canvas  ,so frames become redundant and yes I have started using canvas boards so as Anth says it becomes hypothetical...Friday word.
gdsgfdss

Lucian Hodoboc

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But then, I'm not very fond of deep gallery canvases, 
Robert Jones, NAPA on 15/07/2022 15:40:40
What are deep gallery canvases? Just to make sure we're referring to the same thing. I'm not sure I'm familiar with that phrase.

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