I have been painting and sculpting for many years (too many to tell;-). I always wanted to learn to stretch canvas, but was lazy and needed to see someone do it first. You see, I am a visual person (hence the artist) and once I see something done, it's much easier to be able to do it. Last year I decided to get back to my joy and paint and sculpt full time. I always wanted to go really large, but just hadn't done it yet. Originally, I had a friend that I was going to paint a piece for (kind of a 'thank you' piece) and he wanted it very big. So that was my excuse to go BIG! I went to the store to pick up a canvas and was shocked at the price of stretched canvas. Yicks! It was around $120. Luckily there was a 50% off sale. Now I was looking at $60. I started looking around and a local art supply store is always running a 50% off sale. Theirs canvas was $65. Since I wasn't paying for this one, no biggie, but the next one would be a biggie. I went ahead and bought the canvas and realized if I wanted to do big pieces, I needed to learn how to stretch my own.
I was hanging out with an artist friend, Jesse Cole, who stretched his own. The universe always help ya out when you need it, I find. I asked if he would teach me, and with a few improvements, WALA here we are! I find it very cathartic and now always have around 10 blank canvases to paint on. I love it and each canvas costs me less than $10, even the big ones. How cool is that? My hope is that you will enjoy stretching your own as much as I do. I find that my art is richer now than when I just went to the store, picked up the cheapest canvas I could find, and plunked my money down for it. Here's to the process, Enjoy!!
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