I’ve been working on a couple digital paintings that required me to find some clothing reference for Middle Eastern dance. I came across the site of dancer Laura Selenzi. She’s got quite a gallery there, some wonderful poses, but what really struck me was one particular photo, taken by Mani Mehramooz (it’s in her “studio” gallery). It was one of those moments; when I saw it, I knew I must paint it. So during the last week, that’s what I worked on. It’s oil on canvas on board, 10″x 16″.  I just loved the colors from the original, as well as her pose.  I was a lot of fun to work on, involving quite a bit of painting, wiping, and then painting again. 

I tried something new for the support on this one. I had some high-density fiberboard that I had cut to size and ready for painting. I’ve tried painting on gessoed board but found it a bit too smooth. So I went by Utrecht’s and bought a couple yards of medium canvas. I put a fresh coat of gesso on the board, then laid the canvas on it, folding a couple inches around to the back. Three coats of gesso and sanding later, they were ready for painting. I found I really like the surface, and there’s a bonus: it’s fairly cheap way to get a good, quality, painting support. One reason I tried this in the first place was to get canvas in sizes that I wanted. I really feel comfortable with sizes close to a 1:1.5 ratio.  Well, with most brands, if you want a pre-stretched canvas with that ratio, you have to go up to a 20″x30″ to get it. There are no 10″x15″s or 8″x12″s. 

And for all the press the Golden Rectangle has received, you can forget about finding good painting supports with the 1:1.6 ratio. So I made one specifically for this painting. And I’ve got more board cut to that size, ready for me to get the canvas on them.  I don’t know why you don’t find more canvas with this ratio.  Just about every paperback format is close to it.  So many classic masterpieces have been anything but the 3:4 ratio you find in many preset sizes sold today.  Before this gets me going too long, I’ll save it for another post, another subject line all its own.  Thanks for dropping by.