edges

I paint on both canvas and cradled wooden panels.
With the canvas I generally use a deep edged box canvas, for two main reasons: they can hang effectively without a frame, and as I use a roller with the wax it is important that the stretcher bars are well away from the canvas so I dont get pressure marks from the cross bar supports
The deep edges get loads of marks and build up of paint and wax,, and tgere is a decision to be made about painting them. With these 4, 2 were unpainted at the beginning,nand 2 I had painted a greyish blue at the outset. All 4 were very lumpy, fingermarked and smudged. So I painted them red and green, in a semi transparent mix of oil and wax. I wanted the history of the work to show, but them to look finished. If the eventual owner doesnt like them like this they can frame them
The wooden panels I protect with masking tape, then remove, sand and wax for a sharp finish. In these photos I have just pulled off the tape and not yet sanded and waxed the edges

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start again

this was the repeat refrain on a 10 day meditation retreat I did a couple of years ago in Nepal
applies in all walks of life!

3 paintings in my studio this morning, stuck, frustrated, unresolved

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so ‘start again’!

2 new canvases, 80cm square
3 layers, wet on wet, of contrasting colours, oil and cold wax medium
then some different powder pigments
I’ll go back to them later today or tomorrow, when they are drier but still tacky, and work ovee with a roller
and then start again

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