For the first time in a long time I feel I am ahead of the curve. When I started out as a painter, I used readymade canvases or canvas boards a great deal. For any new artist this is very cost effective especially since much of what you created was going to turn out lousy anyway and be thrown away or simply chalked up as experimental, student or a learning process.

After some time and many years, I realized that the manufactured canvases weren’t holding up to time and were not considered “professional” in the trade. They showed signs of rot and deterioration. The canvas boards were doing okay but were not professional by any means in my eyes. So I started buying primed canvas in rolls along with the stretchers in more exacting sizes I was working in and started preparing my own canvases to my specifications. I jessoed them twice anyway over the edges to give them the support I wanted dur to the fact the roll was only factory primed lightly once, toned them to match my pallet to give an overal undertone to the surface.

Now with the economy in shambles and money very tight, I feel what started out as trying to be more professional ( in my opinion) now turns out to be very economical to say the least because prices in art stores for readymade canvas has skyrocketed. I not only prepare my own canvas, I also re-use them, sanding if necessary and re-jessoing and re-toning sometimes doing this process several times. This has not only turned out to be very economical because you can get many more canvases from a seven foot roll as compared to prepared canvas. And the surface is exactly as I would like every time. Not to mention the therapeutic value of keeping busy on non-productive paint days. I prep fifteen or so canvases every month or as needed.

Also for years now I also have been buying paint on line in very large caulk gun size tubes and don’t but from the local art stores in those exorbitantly priced four ounce tubes, which I would go through in two to three paintings because I work in an impasto technique. These larger tubes hold the equivalent of six small tubes I find very economical to use.  So these are several innovative way of staying ahead in a down economy.