Where To Buy Cheap Canvas For Painting [BEST]
Finding good art supplies is simple when you know where to look. Cheap Joe's Art Stuff has the best selection of cotton and linen stretched canvas anywhere. With professional-grade options from Masterpiece, Fredrix, and even our very own collection, you can replenish your stock of blank canvases, so you've always got a fresh option on hand for your next oil or acrylic painting.
where to buy cheap canvas for painting
Our selection of cotton duck canvas features a huge range of options in rectangle and square shapes. These canvases are primed for oil or acrylic painting, with all of them featuring an acid-free acrylic gesso. You may choose between traditional profiles, which can be framed or have its edges painted, and the gallery wrap profiles that require no frame for presentation. For each style, we offer a large range of sizes, so your paintings are as large or small as you envision. You'll find white canvases as well as archival watercolor and metallic gold options that will enhance the finished look of your oil or acrylic paintings. Use cotton pre-stretched canvas for portraits, fine details, calligraphy, abstracts, and so much more. Want to stretch your own large canvas? We've got a kit just for that here in this selection.
Linen canvas may be your chosen material as a painter instead of cotton. Our collection of linen pre-stretched options has the brands, sizes, and profiles professional painters seek out. For our Joe's Prime Linen Canvas, you may select the Medium or Smooth textured options, each of which have their own benefits. The Masterpiece Elite Heavy-Weight is a unique canvas may be primed for oil or acrylic painting depending on your preference. Many of these stretched canvas selections offer extra canvas and folded corners should you need to re-stretch. For the highest quality, professional-grade canvases available, Cheap Joe's has your artistic needs covered!
If you're a beginner and can't afford stretched canvas for acrylic painting, you could try canvas panels, which are made by mounting acrylic-primed cotton canvas onto a rigid board.There are even cheaper versions using fabrics like hessian, muslin, calico and scrim. Canvas panels are quite popular with students because they're cheap, compact, lightweight (great for outdoors) and available in a range of textures and colors. The downside is that the majority of canvas panels are not permanent and will degrade over time, so they should only be used for practice.
There are now some new canvas panels on the market that are labeled as "professional-quality", but they are still considered a budget option compared to stretched canvas and the like. If you want your canvas panel paintings to last a long time without warping or turning brittle, then look for product descriptions that include terms like "archival", "acid-free" and "professional-quality".
Other popular painting surfaces include canvas panels and canvas boards, for those who prefer a more stable and portable type of blank canvas that travels well and sets up easily in the studio or in the field. Canvas boards and panels are covered with cotton or linen canvas that is mounted securely to a wood, wood fiber, or MDF backing, then turned under and glued securely to prevent fraying. Wood and hardboard panels are a substrate used prior to the 16th century that are still preferred by many artists to this day. They offer an archival alternative to stretched canvas that is best for non-flexible media such as tempera, encaustic, and casein paints. Hardwoods such as maple, birch, and basswood are the basis of these smooth surfaces that can be primed or painted on directly.
Cotton duck canvas is much less expensive than linen and has become the most popular support for oil and acrylic painting, especially for students. A properly prepared cotton canvas has longevity similar to linen, and it's more flexible and easier to stretch properly. However, cotton duck is considered too flexible for very large paintings.
Linen canvas with an oil primer is the classic standard for oil paintings. Though more expensive and harder to stretch properly, linen canvas offers the smoothest and stiffest painting surface and has proven longevity. Strong and durable, linen holds up to a heavy painting hand and doesn't become slack as easily as cotton canvas. For many artists, linen canvas is worth the investment.
Depending on the canvas, you may opt to hang your work without a frame. If you do choose to frame your canvas painting, canvas frames and open back frames are commonly used for stretched canvas or panels. These frames are meant to hang on the wall and don't have any glass or glazing material covering the work. Another option is a floating frame for canvas, which creates the illusion that your artwork is "floating" within the frame.
One of the lovely parts about acrylic paints will be there versatility. Whether you plan on painting in the traditional sense (i.e. canvas or wood panel) or want to add a splash of color to some crafts, this media can be used virtually anywhere.
Canvas can get droopy from all the layers of wet paint, temperature changes, humidity, and age. If you notice sagginess after painting, wait until your canvas is completely dry and hammer the wedges in afterward.
We have a canvas maker that makes our cheaper than we can buy the stretcher bars. The company makes canvases for. Texas Art Supply, Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I started with them 30 years ago when they were working in a garage. Today they are a big company, but still sell to us and our artist friend wholesale. Sunbelt Mfg in Longview, TX. If artists will tell Pat I suggested they call, you can buy from them. They made a 6'x9 canvas for Mikki last year. We use gallery wrap for Mikki and they make them all sizes. Much cheaper than an artist can do them at home. Much cheaper. Jack
I honestly love stretching and preparing my own canvases. I had a hard time finding commercially produced canvases that I liked, so the only way to get what I wanted was to do my own. It wasn't difficult, and I can stretch several in about an hour or so. The surface prep takes longer of course, but even so it is so worth it to have exactly what I want. There are times over the winter when the weather makes it impossible to do any canvas stretching (I work on a table outside, where I have space and access to a compressor that makes stapling very easy), so I use commercially prepared canvases then.
I've found that one of the biggest benefits of stretching canvas and mounting canvas on boards is the fact that I feel freer to experiment without the worry of wasting a lot of money! I paint on a nearly daily basis, so I use canvas sheets to paint. I then post the painting for sale, and if it sells, I affix it to precut hardboard from Dick Blick, or stretch it. If no one is interested in buying it, I leave it "as is", with no further investment of time, money or effort!
I've built my own stretcher frames and stretched my own canvases through the years, from small to huge, using acrylic primer, or traditional skin glue and oil priming. As Theresa expressed so well above, aging hands just don't do the job as painlessly as young ones. One of the big considerations for me about using commercially prepared canvases is the stretcher bars. Especially if the canvas is not stretched tightly, the stretcher frame causes problems when painting, as the canvas hits them as the paint is applied, making a line where the bars are beneath the canvas. When making my own I made sure there was enough of a raised edge on the stretcher bars to avoid this (plus I stretched the canvas good and tight). This meant I cut my own stretcher bars with a beveled edge. Time spent at the lumber yard simply finding wood not warped or knotty with a tight grain (to avoid splintering) was the first step in the process. Back when I started doing this, redwood was my preferred stretcher bar material. It doesn't bleed sap like pine does and it is lightweight and strong. It was easy to find and not too expensive, even for a college student over 40 years ago. This is not the case anymore, though.
Maybe if I knew how to stretch my own gallery-wrapped canvas, I might do my own. I've switched to gallery-wrapped because if I carry the painting around to the sides, I can avoid having to buy a frame. The galleries here seem to like this. I buy the heavy-duty, gallery-wrapped, 15 oz. stretched canvas online and have been pretty happy with it. The supposed "all media", lightweight stretched canvas I would NOT recommend because of warping and skewing.
Hi Keith, Great article for all artists, the question to make or buy ready made canvas, was made a lot easier for me a couple of years ago. My friend and master artist, Jack White shared a good USA resource for prestretched canvas. I have used this company's product for over two years and not had one quality complaint from over 60 of my ebay customers, using this supplier. Company Name: Sunbelt Manufacturing Company Location: Longview,Texas, USA Local Phone: 1-903-297-8103 Toll Free: 1-800-333-8412 Products: Stretcher bar strips, double primed canvas(for those who want to make own canvas) Many sizes, prestretched canvas on 1 1/2" x3/4" stretcher strips Aluminum squeegee to apply gesso, rubber in many durometers. Gallery wrap canvas, many popular sizes, will custom make to your spec. If you want here is the website www.sunbeltymfg.com If you call, ask for Pat, owner/operator and say Jim Springett shared information on their canvas products and ask for current pricing and product information. I have worked with Pat over the past few years and his company can now staple the canvas on the back of the stretcher strip, not on the side, because many of my customers love when I paint the sides, they do not spend on frames and enjoy the painting in that way. Pat, too, is interested in learning how to make canvas and linen on wood or masonite hard board, I love to paint using that material, and this year that new product may be available, at more than competitive pricing. The good news, Pat's Sunbelt Manufacturing Company is right here in the good old USA, and when I place and order, it arrives in 2 to 3 days, so I apprecite the attention to details and most of the time I do not carry huge inventories to help keep my costs in control and with their service I can manage my costs better. Their costs are better than the National Art Supply Houses, so that was a plus too, actually a very big surprise. I would recommend Sunbelt Manufacturing Company, and he can make the special frames in larger sizes and ship to you with no problem. With my time being what it is, I need to paint, so having a very reputable USA canvas supplier has helped me grow my art business. Thanks Pat. I wish to be able to share canvas information, so this can help others. Jim Springett-wildlife painter 041b061a72