There are many benefits to online shopping for pre-stretched canvas in lieu of traditional retail shopping.  I’ve discovered that online shopping is much more convenient than planning the fastest route to the local art supply store, increasing my gas costs to drive my car (however fuel efficient my lovely Yaris may be), and spending money on just two large canvases that may lack the quality I was looking to find.  Not mention, online shopping for pre-stretched canvas guarantees me exceptionally low stress levels!

I enjoy making smart canvas purchases through CanvasLot.com because I trust their quality and a click of my mouse saves me money!  Below, I will tell you why.  Let’s get started!

RETAIL THERAPY OR AN INEVITABLE FINANCIAL HEADACHE
Although traditional retail shopping does provide a genuinely positive shopping experience most of the time, I’ve found that it does not keep gas money in my pocketbook which causes me stress.  Sure I could budget properly for gas costs but I usually remember that I need to go to the grocery store for a random replenishment item or just find another reason to shop on impulse.  You’ve been there before, I’m sure and it takes an exceptional amount of willpower to ignore a sudden itch to spend.

To alleviate the pitfalls of spending while shopping at retail stores, I’ve chosen to shop for art supplies and canvas in the comfort of my own home.  This way, I know what I want to purchase and how to get it to my home in a timely manner.  I also do not feel the pressure that comes with spending in public or guilty if a nice salesperson makes me feel obligated to purchase just one more little item that will improve their metrics.

ONLINE SHOPPING IS A GOOD MOVE FOR YOUR BUDGET
As previously mentioned, I refer to Canvas Lot  for my bulk canvas purchases.  When you land on their website, you’re immediately greeted with videos that detail their production process.  If you can believe it, there are real people that are stretching the canvas by hand!  Made-to-order and custom-fitted, these canvases are the real deal.  You’re not going to purchase five canvases wrapped haphazardly in celophane that have been warped due to poor shipping and storage practices.  You’re going to receive hand-stretched canvases that have been given the attention that you’d expect.

Many artists, such as yourself, know how to stretch their own canvas but in the event that you just don’t have the time to do so, you need to sit in front of your computer and go to CanvasLot.com to get your bulk canvases.

ONLINE SHOPPING WITH CANVAS LOT
If you have a budget of $100.00, you can get at least 9 quality canvases, if not one more for giggles!  Sure, you can go to Amazon.com to search for a more affordable price but are you going to receive the same quality?  Do you know where your canvas is coming from?  Do you know who made it?  Most likely you won’t know the answer to these questions – with CanvasLot.com you have the assurance of knowing that your dollars will get you the most canvases at the best quality from the experienced hands of Austin, Texas residents.

It’s just that simple!

What are you waiting for?  Follow me to CanvasLot.com today!

With so many options to buy pre-stretched art canvas at a reasonable price, you may be asking yourself why you should pick CanvasLot.com as your canvas retailer.  I’ll give you a few good reasons why CanvasLot.com is the online art supply retailer for you!

THINK GLOBAL, GO LOCAL!
Many art supply companies purchase their products from vendors that offer their products at discounted rates but sometimes the quality just isn’t there.  The benefit of shopping through CanvasLot.com is that you know exactly where your canvas is coming from: Austin, TX.  Every canvas is stretched by hand under the supervision of well-trained technicians that know that quality will always override quality.  If you ask me, that’s a bargain in and of itself because you’re getting the best canvas for your hard earned buck!  Plus, you’re helping the local economy and when you take care of the locals, the locals will take care of you.  It’s a win-win, my friend!

BULK BUYING IS THE WAY TO GO
For many artists, students, and teachers buying art supplies and canvas in bulk is the most reasonable and affordable route to take on a spending spree.  Most art supplies are not very costly on a need-to-buy-now basis.  It’s the long-term, big picture business of art supply management that typically eats away the dollars of the customer.  Since you want to save yourself money and time, buy in bulk!  CanvasLot.com offers you this option in addition to high quality pre-stretched canvas.

WHOLESALE DISCOUNTS
Did you know that CanvasLot.com offers discounts to wholesale buyers?  For the past ten years, Canvas Lot has made every effort to perfect their quality standards to offer their customers the best canvases at the most affordable prices.  Canvas Lot also understands the importance of offering wholesale discounts to individuals and entities that need them most.  If you’re a school teacher who wants to provide art canvases to your entire class or a volunteer at an art therapy office, you have a reliable foundation for buying your canvas at a wholesale price!  Isn’t that a relief?  Now, you can get down to the business of making art not wasting time with an affordable art supply treasure hunt!

What Are You Waiting For?  Buy Your Canvas Today!
These are just a few reasons why CanvasLot.com is your one-stop online shop for the best canvases.  Once you actually receive your brand new blank pre-stretched canvas that’s been waiting to exhibit your imagine on its fibers, you’ll see just how brilliant your decision to buy from them was… go ahead – pat yourself on the back for your future frugality!

De Stijl on Canvas

De Stijl is everywhere, and you love it but you don’t even know it!

One of my favorite forms of artwork is De Stijl, a composition of lines angles and primary colors on a stark white background.  I would imagine that art history teachers find this particular art movement very exciting to teach based on its exultation of the abstract and the pure forms within human beings’ everyday lives.  De Stijl was a direct result of neoplasticism, which rejects the idea of painting or recreating objects in a traditional sense.  Only the form and color were the absolute highlight of De Stijl.

The most well known artists that used De Stijl on canvas were Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Vilmos Huszár (1884–1960), and Bart van der Leck (1876–1958), and  architects Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), Robert van ‘t Hoff (1887–1979), and J.J.P. Oud (1890–1963).  Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) was the founder of the De Stijl art movement that has influenced so much of our modern art and design.

Piet Mondrian is important to canvas art because of his idea of De Stijl as an art movement that claimed to reflect the absolutes of form in nature.  This idea has influenced many artists around the world, and it has also influenced individuals who are not typically thought of as canvas artists but performing artists and scientists.  His most recognized work is a series of “lozenge” paintings that are canvases tilted at 45 degrees to create a diamond shape.  They are known as Composition With Blue and Composition in White and Blue.

Outside of the art world, De Stijl on canvas has influenced brilliant minds.  Frank Lloyd Wright, the world’s premiere architect with a personal history full of intrigue, uses the most recognizable form of De Stijl in the erection of commercial and residential buildings.

Of all Wright’s creations, the most famous and revered is located east of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called Fallingwater.  I think of it as a residential structure that was influenced by De Stijl because of its sharp lines and neutral color scheme.   This building was erected in the mountains over a 30′ waterfall.  De Stijl is a movement that heralds nature.  In my humble opinion the Fallingwater home encompasses many of the ideals that De Stijl upheld, and that is why I love it so much! Take a look for yourself!  I plan on packing up a suitcase and leaving Austin to visit this amazing structure one of these days.  Until then, I’ll continue to study the De Stijl movement in canvas art and modern architecture.

Do you love elephants?  Great!  I do, too!   What I love the most about the world’s largest living land mammals – besides their ability to communicate in sonar, amazingly intricate bone structure, and their production of ivory – is their high level of intelligence.  These decedents of prehistoric mammoths have come a long way as a species: surviving extinction, avoiding poachers, and becoming world renowned canvas artists!

The canvas paintings of one of the world’s most beloved creatures is a beautiful contribution to the modern world of humans.

“Anyone who spends time with these wonderful mammals and observes them when they paint freestyle, cannot fail to understand that they simply love what they do,” states The Elephant Art Gallery Director Issaraporn Kaewthanasawad.  It is apparent in the resulting artwork created by elephants that imparts their contentment in the act of painting.

Wanalee
There are several popular elephant painters that have touched the lives of everyday human beings.  Wanalee is an Asian elephant, hailing from Thailand, that has been lauded as royalty and has had her artwork shown internationally since 2005.  This gentle giant was adopted by the late Princess Galyani, the elder sister of His Majesty the King of Thailand, and is still considered one of the world’s most talented famous animal artists.  According to The Elephant Art Gallery, Wanalee’s artistic style has been described as “free flowing expression with a rich combination of vertical, horizontal and lateral strokes and then occasionally producing a more studied basket or ‘nestlike’ image with the brushstrokes ending in a flourish toward the middle of the paper.”

That’s pretty impressive!

 

Tao

Most likely you’ve heard or have even used the term “rescue animal”.  Would you ever consider this term for a brilliant beast like Tao?  It is documented that this elephant artist was rescued from the streets of Bangkok, although little else is known about Tao before his brief art career.  Although Tao has retired from canvas art, his artwork can be seen online and one-of-a-kind pieces are in homes across the globe.

Kaew

Born in Lampang, Thailand’s Thai Elephant Conservation Center, elephant artist Kaew is very intelligent and also absolutely terrified of chickens!  Although this phobia is typical among the world’s biggest land beasts, that hasn’t stopped Kaew from creating beautiful pieces of artwork for the  masses.  Kaew is considered a rarity in the elephant art world because of his ability to arc his brush strokes, coming very close to creating a circle formation.  His artwork was so revered that he became a top selling elephant artist in 2010!

Elephants Are Amazing Artists
As you can see elephants are not only intelligent peaceful animals, they are also incredible artists that have a unique ability to touch the world with their talents!

The Opportunities To Create Art Are Endless!

Here are more excellent art project ideas for young people, especially children who have art projects and assignments!

Murals

Murals are fun and simple art pieces that make the artist feel as is there are no restrictions on their ideas.  In the case of children and young adults, it is important to encourage their imaginations and curious nature.  That is why I feel that murals, using pre-stretched canvas from CanvasLot.com, is the best option for letting kids of all ages let their imaginations run wild.  Pre-stretched canvas can take a lot of different ideas and mesh them into one.  For a project, try a natural landscape scene – paint trees and other natural plants in background then hot glue a few animals on the horizon line of the piece.  Add a sun or a moon or both!

Collage ArtCollage Art can be a derivative of the aforementioned mural, where hot glue and inanimate objects and even newspaper clippings can all become the best interpretation of a child’s inner most thoughts.  Remember those days of clipping out random letters, words, and phrases as a kid and pasting them on magazine pages?  If not, it’s a good start for a project with your child!

Still Life Paintings

Still Life paintings on pre-stretched canvas may seem advanced to some children but fear not!  Still Life can be exciting and help children understand forms that occur within their surrounding environments.  Children see objects such as pencils, markers, apples and oranges, and even toys every single day – why not get them to draw these objects, then paint them?  This is one of the best ways to help a young person to conceptualize the everyday objects in a way that helps them replicate what they see.  Now, don’t get discouraged!  I cannot tell you how strange animals look on a piece of canvas that I have try to paint… and I will spare you them odd images but you can help your child discover that even in still life, “abstract” results can yield some of the most encouragement in the art world and at school!

Results?
Well, it has long been debated that art is in the eye of the beholder but hey!  This is a school art project: this is meant to be FUN!  So, instead of reaching toward the projects as a matter of an “A” or “F” grade, reach for the fun of discovering where art can take your child’s imagination.  Who knows?  There may be a Picasso in your midst, that you may have to ground from time to time.

Until next time, keep creating and painting!

Canvas serves many purposes in the Art World and also in fashion – clothing, accessories, and shoes can all be produced with canvas.  In addition to being one of the most important tools of artistic expression and apparel, canvas also inspires creative individuals to pursue careers outside of the seemingly glamorous lifestyle of an artist.  There are a few rewarding jobs that can turn into careers that have been inspired by canvas, and I am going to list just a couple of them that I find both interesting and rewarding.

Museum Guides
Art Museums.  Historical Museums.  Natural Science Museums.  Music Hall of Fame Museums.  These are all places that have been inspired by the human spark of expression.  Museum Guides, or more traditionally tour guides, are people that hold a special place in my heart.  These are the people that have the great fortune of looking at the art that they love every single day, and get to take brilliant new experiences with them every day that they go home.  The museum guide is at the forefront of a magical adventure in any art museum or gallery housing the work of the world’s most renowned human beings.  Could you imagine working at The Museum of Modern Art every day, or giving the inside scoop about The Mona Lisa at the Louvre?  How exciting!  To think, it’s all because of canvas!

Creative and Performing Arts Teachers and Instructors
After only a couple years of studying art as a solitary student, I have determined that some of the most important people in my academic career have been those with an artistic inclination.  My band directors, art teachers, and communications coaches are usually at the forefront of my most cherished adolescent and college memories.  I find that these individuals most inspiring because they showed me at an early age how to appreciate art and even sound (in relation to music as an art form), although I hadn’t an actual clue about the importance of it at the time.  I believe that canvas inspired these people into action, so much in fact that they decided to share their knowledge in a classroom setting with young students.  At some moment in each other my former teachers and instructors live, they were visually struck by the language they read on canvas, heard through musical arrangement, or experienced through the power of performance.

Long story short, I am grateful that their inspiration was shared in this particular manner.

Are You Inspired?
These particular occupations are worthy of praise in my book because of they require a high level of dedication to the history of art, and the understanding of how art can be an effective educational tool for children and adults!  I feel inspired by these people, and look forward to learning more from them every day.

All for now!

At what point does canvas become a piece of “art” and under what conditions?  Of course opinions may vary, but I will be so bold as to ask and to answer this burning question that has left me quite curious.

I will begin with a brief hypothesis: Canvas becomes art at the moment it has been transformed by the person that impresses their idea upon it to share a message within a visual conservation between the artist and the observer.

By definition, canvas is a textile.  As the trusted community editors of Wikipedia would say, “Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame. It is also used in such fashion objects as handbags and shoes.” (retrieved June 21, 2012 – G. M. H.)

Conceptually for the artist and his or her audience, it is a plane that is used to express emotions, re-tell stories that were either once forgotten or rarely if ever shared, and convey messages that are otherwise gone unheard.  To further explore my hypothesis about canvas I would like to further explore the genre of Abstract Art that may help to prove my point.

ABSTRACT ART
For the past year, I have been wildly obsessed with Abstract Art.  Being a writer and watercolor painter, the visual language of this genre speaks to me in a way that is a uniquely personal conversation between the artist who has created the work and my own interpretation of what that person may want me to know.

I find Abstract Art incredibly personal, and enjoy learning about the artist that has taken the time to share their stories with others.  To “learn” about the abstract painter, I read their work through the observations of an unwitting outsider.  I like to let the painting introduce itself to me then relax my own expectations of how I am supposed to feel about it, and simply receive its message.

The personal touch of Abstract Art is evident in the surface of the canvas that the artist uses.  This person has taken the physical plane of the canvas and transformed it into an extension of themselves with the use of pointedly purposeful pencil outlines, lines formed from paint on natural bristle brushes, and cuts made in the canvas to create sharp effects that emphasize points and arguments.  Digital images of abstract art are just fine but for the full effect of the messages of Abstract genres, I highly recommend visiting your local art museum!

I am not sure if there is a point to be proven necessarily by stating my opinion about the creation of Art on canvas… but I am happy to be able to kind of, sort of explain it in a way that utilizes the term hypothesis!  If it doesn’t make sense to you, then take a moment to enjoy this James Abbott McNeil Whistler painting below and keep Canvas Lot’s Blog “bookmarked” for more of my explanations.

Tech and art are a partnership for the ages. Where for years certain things were considered impossible to do or improve upon in the art world, in recent years technology has opened up countless doors once thought permanently shut, as it has in all areas of life. One such area to which new tech has brought exciting opportunities is that of art reproductions on canvas. Previously, reproducing prints of artworks was a difficult process, involving extensive set-up, and no process was able to acquire quite the level of exact detail desired by collectors. However, in the past thirty-odd years, a few brilliant new developments in printing technologies have changed all that by introducing a new type of print known to the art world as “giclée.”

Like many artistic practices, the history of the giclée print is an odd and fascinating story. It begins in the late 1980’s, when image scanning and image printing technologies were starting to reach a level of excellence and exactness that had hitherto been unavailable. Printers were getting better and better all the time, and eventually one was made known as the IRIS printer. This seriously cool piece of machinery produced color prints that were unparalleled at the time for their image and color reproduction, and it did it without leaving the typical “dots” that come from printing with other machines.

This neat new printer had a few major differences from a normal high-quality printer. First, the ink was sprayed continuously from four 1 micrometer glass jets, instead of as needed, and the particles of ink were charged electrically. A vibrating piezoelectric crystal, which caused it to spray at a 1 Mhz rate, regulated the flow of ink and all of the excess ink that wasn’t used was deflected by an electrostatic system to a waste area (thus why it was electrically charged). Instead of printing on a flat paper, the paper (or canvas) was wrapped around a cylinder in the machine, and the ink was sprayed on slowly, line by miniscule line.

The IRIS printer was originally designed and used to create high quality “proofs,” or sheets that would be used to test out color printing jobs before they were printed in larger amounts. However, the accuracy and spectacular beauty that the printer was capable of was soon noticed by a few folk with an artistic eye, who began to test the printer’s capabilities at printing fine art reproductions. This process quickly caught on, as it was capable of producing much more exact and long-lasting reproductions of art than the other processes at the time, the most popular of which was lithographic printing. In addition, once a piece had been accurately digitized and set up for printing on an IRIS printer (a process which still took a lot of work and expertise), it could be digitally stored and used whenever needed with little to no further set up required.

While the process of using IRIS printers to reproduce art on paper and canvas began in the late 1980’s, there was no universal name for the technique until 1991, when printmaker Jack Duganne came up with the term now in common use, “giclée.” Duganne didn’t like his gorgeous art prints being referred to as “proofs,” like other, less artistically-inclined prints made with IRISes, so he went in search of a better term. Duganne wanted a term that would get away from the computer and tech aspects and focus more on the artistic edge of the thing. He noticed that the French word for “nozzle” was gicleur, and that gicler meant to squirt, both of which relate to the way the printer works. He took these terms and came up with “giclée,” which has since caught on. The term wasn’t universally loved, as photographers liked the term “digigraph” and some found giclée to be pretentious, but the term spread and now means any high-quality art reproduction on canvas by large format printers, and not just those made on IRIS printers.

Since the 1990’s, giclée prints have grown hugely in popularity, as they provide a great middle ground between owning an original piece of art and having a lithographic reproduction. Giclée are much cheaper than real works, look almost exactly like the same thing, and are much more exact than other reproductions. In fact, many art museums have begun to display extremely high quality giclée prints!

If you’re interested in seeing some examples of giclée printed art, take a quick jaunt over to our sister company’s homepage. As we’ve mentioned before, Art Warehouses uses the same spectacular, top-quality custom stretched canvases we sell at Canvas Lot to print the very best giclée reproductions anywhere online or off. For art lovers like us who just can’t afford that multi-million dollar Picasso, giclée prints provide a thrilling and affordable opportunity to own great work and keep it in our own homes.

Printing and scanning technology isn’t slowing down, and is set to keep getting better every year. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll have robots that can use brushes to reproduce every stroke made by a master! Until then, giclée prints are simply the best reproductions available, and a great example of how tech and art can combine to create some absolutely marvelous examples of human creativity.

A great work sits finished, canvas still aromatic with sticky paint on the easel. As you sit back and rest for a minute in that addictive feeling of having completed something you feel great about, you start to move into the next phase of art. Suddenly, it’s not about making art, it’s about showing it. Or maybe you just bought yourself a gorgeous, eye-popping work from your favorite painter, and you want to give the canvas a prominent place in your home. Lucky for you, and your piece, displaying canvas is a fairly easy process with options for pretty much any place you might want the work to shine.

To Frame, or Not to Frame?

Before you start picking out a spot on the wall, it’s a good idea to decide whether or not you want your work framed. While framing can often add to a work in a variety of ways, such as adding another aesthetic dimension, protecting the work and even upping its value some (depending on the frame), many artists and art-lovers are choosing to display unframed canvases. This decision is purely up to you, and there’s no right answer. Simply look at the painting, and decide whether it would be enhanced or reduced by a frame. Frames generally come with hanging implements already installed on their back, so to display framed canvas, you just need to put nails in the wall at the desired place and hang the work on the nails.

The most common method for displaying an unframed canvas is to hang it, and in this regard you essentially have two choices. You can either install something on the wall to hang the work on, or you can put something on the canvas to hang on a nail on the wall.

On the Frame Hanging

If you think you might move the canvas, and you don’t mind having to carefully insert screws into its frame, its a good idea to install a hanging implement on the frame itself. There are a huge amount of options for this, such as brackets of various kinds (i.e.: a D-ring bracket), mirror plates or ring screws attached to art wire. Some top-notch canvas makers create their canvases with art wire already attached for your hanging convenience, so check your piece to make sure you even need to install anything.

Even with built-in hanging implements, sometimes you need a piece to sit more stable or flush to the wall, and that’s when you’ll want to try out brackets or mirror plates. These can be screwed into the wood on the back of a frame and have a loop or hole that sticks up a bit from the top and/or sides of the canvas, allowing you to slip them over a nail. Like with the framed canvas, use a level to mark exactly where you want your nails, so your canvas hangs straight. It’s also a good idea to remember to hang things at eye-level, otherwise it can diminish the viewing experience.

On the Wall Hanging

If you’d rather not attach anything to the canvas, or you know that your piece won’t be moving much, try an on-the-wall mount. For a basic mount of this kind, you just need nails or tacks placed in a straight line on the wall so that the lip of the canvas sits on top of them, but there are many better options available than this. Check out the hardware store or art supply store for such items as J hooks, or special picture hanging devices from manufacturers like 3M. These all work essentially the same way, by sticking in or to your wall and providing a surface or point to hang the canvas on by its lip. Some products, like the 3M Command Strip, offer a sturdy way to support your canvas without putting holes in your wall or otherwise damaging it.

Cool Alternative Display Methods

There are two other ways of displaying a canvas that are worth noting here. If your work is big enough, say four feet tall or more, it’s becoming more and more popular to simply lean the work against the wall at a slight angle. The weight of the piece should keep it in place, but only do use this method if you’re sure that people won’t be bumping into the work at all. A second interesting alternative to wall hanging is hanging a work from the ceiling. For this, just put some eye-screws spaced to the size of the canvas into your ceiling, hang chains from the eyes, and then attach those to brackets in the back of your canvas (you may have to install these yourself).

Using one of these methods, you should be able to display just about any canvas in a way that’s both safe for the piece and looks great. Just pick out the ideal spot for your new piece, decide which method would work best for that spot and go to town. Soon enough, everyone in your house will be able to enjoy your spectacular new artwork, and you’ll feel secure knowing the piece was displayed correctly. All that’s left to do now is pick up another canvas, and start the process over again!

While growing up as an adolescent in a tiny island town on the Texas Coastline, I kept myself occupied by reading Archie comic books and Stephen King paperbacks.  This love of illustration and literature gave me the inspiration to draw.  Ever since I drew a few freehand portraits of Archie, Betty, Jughead, and Veronica I was obsessed with illustration and collecting art supplies.

My near obsessive drive to collect art supplies and artist canvases seems aimless but there is a goal in mind: I want to express myself through paints and canvas.  Most of all, I want to share my ideas with my social circle.  This desire to share art led me to like minded individuals outside of the coastal barrier.

After leaving the tiny island town and moving to the Texas Hill Country, I decided to surround myself with artists that inspire me and to frequent art supply stores.  Fortunately, I have been able to meet some of the most amazing artists in Texas and have been able to add to my supply closet in the meantime.

You may be wondering: how do these two things go hand in hand?

I will tell you!

Here are 2 art supply recommendations that I have received from local artists in the Texas Hill Country that have not only helped me to understand that shopping for the best materials is not only easy but essential to conveying the message that you originally intended!

ARTIST CANVAS
“Always use top quality canvas.” – TigerStyle, TigerStyle Gallery of Art

Even though I primarily use watercolors and the appropriate absorbent surfaces, canvas has been recommended to me by friends in the arts community.  I have looked into a few stores such as Michael’s Arts and Crafts and Hobby Lobby but I have become a huge advocate for purchasing my art supplies and canvas in bulk at wholesale prices.

PAINT BRUSHES
“Sure, you could use a couple of rocks and pieces of grass from the ground but try a couple of paint brushes instead.  You’ll find a way to may the art speak.” – Animus Prime, Animus Prime Photography

I have found this sentiment to be the most helpful.  When I first shifted my creative expression from illustration to collage art and painting, I would use materials that I found on the ground while walking in city parks such as clusters of bird feathers and colored glass.  After Prime’s recommendation, I have found that I love using paint brushes – especially Da Vinci Short Handle Nova Brushes (you can find these brushes on dickblick.com).

There you have it!

Canvas and Paint Brushes are two recommendations from local Austin artists that have really pushed my artistic endeavors in a new direction.