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Surfaces, surfaces...
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Message
Posted
I hope you get on with them better than I did Norrette, overrated and overpriced in my opinion but that’s an opinion not shared by everyone, I appreciate that of course!
I believe that a coat of gesso applied before painting helps with the movement of the oil paint slightly over the shiny surface, maybe that’s what you’re supposed to do anyway…
I’ve got about six of them in different sizes left , free samples mainly sent to me to review some time ago - there’s an interesting elongated size among them that I just might have another go at over the weekend, if I can come up with an interesting subject.
Unlike Denise, and probably Norrette, I’m not after perfection in a painting, in fact quite the opposite!
You’ll probably find these panels perfect for your style of working Denise… you’re getting there slowly but surely in your quest to work in the style of the Dutch masters…it takes time and dedication and you have both!
Posted
The Ampersand boards are available - I say this from memory, mind you: not the most reliable of guides - in several different surfaces. They have a degree of absorbency, and thus of grip - you won't go skating over the surface and find your paint falling off. I don't think you're supposed to, or anyway that you have to, apply any additional priming; that would rather negate the point of them since you could just as easily buy a tempered hardboard and apply priming to it at much less cost.
I liked the surface enough for an oil painting to think of using them again: I haven't yet - suggesting perhaps that I was impressed, but didn't actually fall in love with them; the cost is steep - they're imported from the USA - I'm quite easily deterred by expense! (I must watch these exclamation marks - my late Auntie Peg used them in such profusion that you'd think she'd exhausted the world's supply....)
I struggled with them when using acrylics - but that's a sample of one: I couldn't get the paint to work at all: if you're using them with those, I'd suggest plenty of water or acrylic medium. With oil, though - my painting didn't do them justice, but it was fun to do - too much fun maybe, because I didn't really refine it ... but then, that can be a good thing too....
In short: try them - our reactions to surfaces are as varied and individual as we are, and you never know: you might be besotted.
Posted
I've just dug out a couple of 5" x 7" sample boards I picked up from a shop in London some months ago. Ones called "gessobord" and I've just realised (wearing my reading glasses) they are Ampersand. The other is called "claybord". They're both in their shrink wrap, but feel as smooth as a tile. I don't think *that* smooth is what I'm looking for. But I'll have a play this weekend.
It's my rubbish Crawford & Black ring bound canvas pads that are the root of my problem, so I'll see how I get on with the canvas boards I have.
A lot of tutors impress on students about getting quality paint, but I think they should also advise about surface. Easier with water colour as weight is a good judgement call. But with an oil surface unless you get a sample of everything, you're none the wiser and blame yourself.
I like your seascape Alan, especially the tones.
And yes, Denise et al, I keep looking at those eggs. It's on loan to the NG from a private collection, and the painter isn't in my Dutch Golden Age book.
Posted
You got a great result there, Alan, which is the point, really. Yes, these boards do sort of grab the paint, and you have to work it, but that can be a good thing - not that you're a slick painter, but that might help avoid slickness, that fighting with the surface - a fight is worth having if you win in the end, maybe?
A bit of Linseed oil helps, of course.... I take it you didn't try one of these boards with acrylics: I think you might be turned right off them if you had, though it's probably a matter of just getting used to them, which I hadn't when I fought with one and lost: I brought it round in the end, sort of, but the result reflects the fury into which I'd descended - the painting was described here as "in your face", which was exactly right... "in the bin" might have applied, too; but of course expecting to get the same results as you got with a more familiar surface does cause one to ask "why not stick with your familiar surface, then?" A reasonable question, to which I would have returned a very unreasonable answer at the time.
Posted
For the past two years, I’ve pretty much settled on the Jackson’s Belle Arti canvas boards, or indeed, Jackson’s own canvas and linen boards, both on rigid MDF and cleanly sheared at the edges, rather than that awful stuff on cardboard which is wrapped all around the edges…horrid albeit cheap!
I’ve just completed an oil on their rough grain jute… highly recommended.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I often use Ampersand gesso boards, expensive? Perhaps but better for me than a few pints of cider down the pub😀. I’ve only used the basic 3mm gesso board. If you would like to display your paintings without frames I would suggest buying one of the cradled options. I’ve not tried the claybord version but I suspect it might be draw the oil out of your paint. I’d love to know if someone knows better.
This is an example of one I did on 12’ x 12” Uncradled 3mm Ampersand gesso board.
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