Those that have paid a visit to our site may have noticed a few of our videos displaying our process and our shop (And if you haven’t been, we encourage you to do so! We’re pretty proud of it.). If you have, you might have seen some shots of the tools and machines we use to stretch our canvases and wondered, what exactly are those? Well, this is your chance to find out a little bit of info on the various tools professional canvas stretchers have in their arsenal.

Though there are countless styles, variations and unique kinds of canvas stretching tools, professional stretchers essentially need tools to do only four things: build the frame, cut the canvas, stretch it (of course!) and attach the canvas to the frame.

Building the Frame

To build the frame, we first need stretcher bars. These are basically just pieces of wood that have diagonally cut corners, which fit together. Most modern stretchers have neat little tongue-and-groove style corners that slide perfectly into each other, though some are cut flat and must be attached together with staples or other materials (usually made of metal). Some stretchers buy their bars pre-cut, but Canvas Lot actually cuts our bars on the property, meaning we also have to have special saws to create the precise cuts in the wood.

Though canvas frames can and often are attached by hand, professional operations such as Canvas Lot use machines called “underpinners” to build their frames. Underpinners use clamps to hold stretcher bars in the perfect place and then quickly attach them together in a very precise manner. The operator of an underpinner can switch out the corner that is being attached very fast, making it a breeze to build many frames in a short amount of time.

A Perfectly Cut Canvas

The tool that is used next is the canvas cutter. Most people at home use scissors or other common cutting implements to do this, but this method is usually inaccurate, takes a while and can easily ruin a piece of canvas. Instead of these, some canvas stretchers use very precise manual cutting tools, such as cutting guide rails, while others use even more precise and much faster laser canvas cutting machines. Whatever the tool used, the cuts must be as precise as possible, or the canvas will stretch poorly (or not at all).

The Fun Part- Stretching the Canvas

Once the frame is built and the canvas cut, it’s ready to be stretched. For this, we need the rest of the tools, including stretching pliers and tools and materials to attach the canvas to the wood.

The pliers are specially built with wide, semi-flat jaws that grip the canvas tight enough to pull it, but carefully enough that they don’t leave dents, tears or other damage on the canvas. These usually have special grips in the jaws to accomplish that, sometimes using a ridged pattern in the metal and sometimes using a rubberized gripping surface.

When the pliers have pulled a piece of the canvas to the correct tightness on the frame, they are held there while the two are secured together. This is either done the old-fashioned way, with a hammer and special tacks, or the modern way, with a staple gun. Staple guns are much quicker and more efficient, needing only one hand, and come in either manual, electric or pneumatic versions. Canvas Lot uses pneumatic staple guns, which are very quick, accurate and much easier to use than a manual gun.

Once all these tools have been utilized, all that’s left to do is inspect the canvas for perfection, and then wrap it up to be shipped! As you can see, each of the tools that it takes to stretch a canvas is very specialized and must be incredibly accurate. While it’s certainly possible to try and buy them yourself and stretch canvas at home, these tools (especially the machines) are very expensive and take years of training and learning to use well.

If you’re thinking about stretching on your own, save yourself some time and money and check out our amazing prices and excellent work. In the end, we guarantee you’ll spend a great deal less letting us do the dirty work, and you’ll have the added benefit of our expensive and precise machines making certain that your canvas is the best it could possibly be. Try us out; we know you’ll love the canvas we’ll make you!

It’s often said that children “say” the darnedest things, but what about those certain individuals that use canvas and oil based materials to make beautiful Fine Art?  Are they overlooked or overshadowed by the adult art world?

In the case of child prodigy Akiane  Kramarick the latter is far from the truth.   Kramarick is a young American poet and artist.  She has been heralded throughout the world as a prodigy for her realistic paintings of people, landscape, and otherworldly places.  This young lady has an amazing talent that has been called a “gift from God” and even “divine.”  She has even claimed that she is not necessarily influenced by a particular thing here on Earth, but receives visions from God.  This was a surprise to her parents that held no particular religious belief but after Kramarick’s beautiful paintings began to move them, both parents converted from atheism to a Christian belief system.

Akaine Kramarick proclaims that her works of art are by all means divination-based but her paintings have peaked the interests of people from all walks of life including such bright stars as singer Josh Groban and The Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson.

At the age of ten, Kramarick was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show where she was applauded by Winfrey for her remarkable talent.  Two years after her television debut, Kramarick was featured on CNN.  Her work can be seen on the website dedicated to her work and life: Akaine.

I think that it is absolutely amazing what this young child has been able to do with blank canvas and whole lot of imagination!  Without a doubt, Kramarick is a unique child that has the ability to turn her ideas and out-of-this-world insight into brilliant pieces for all people to admire.

I have often wondered what would happen if the world were introduced to a handful of young people that could turn the art world on its head with their exceptionally creative use of materials.  Through her example, I have gathered that the world will embrace such a rarity in nature, however big or small.

What I find most impressive about this amazingly talent young person is her ability to turn a blank pre-stretched canvas into a masterpiece!  Sure, “masterpiece” is often thrown around haphazardly in the art world but this is not a light use of the word.  Akaine Kramarick is truly a small wonder!

Other than to a few brilliant iconoclasts, such as Jackson Pollock, an unprimed canvas really isn’t of much use to anyone. Your paint won’t stick right, the rough texture of the weave gives an awkward and uncomfortable brushing experience, and the whole thing is likely to just fall apart at some point in the future. Because of these issues and more, experienced canvas producers such as Canvas Lot provide you with pre-primed canvas that makes creating your masterwork a breeze.

We’ve told you what primer is in a previous post, but how exactly is it used? What magic process is involved in priming? Priming techniques are no mystery, but it is an incredibly picky and sometimes difficult process that most artists prefer to leave to the experts. To give you a little information on how this important, if delicate, process works, here’s an overview of the two main priming techniques.

Old School Priming -or- Priming for Oil

Priming a canvas to be ready for oil paints is a seriously old process, dating back to the 1400’s when canvas began to take over as the dominant painting surface. Though there are many ways to do it, we’re going to tell you how Fredrix, the makers of the canvas material for Canvas Lot, still do their oil priming, which is by hand.

To begin, a large piece of raw woven canvas is carefully stretched over a special frame that has little spikes at the edge, to which the canvas is attached. This is a very specific part of the process, and experienced primers know exactly how much to stretch each part so that it’s neither too slack or too tight. This might seem like a less important part of the whole thing, but it’s not, as any mistakes will ruin the whole canvas later in the process.

After it’s stretched, the canvas is inspected and any aberrations in the weave are fixed with special tools. There are usually a few, and it takes a master to fix these by hand.

Next, the rough canvas is sanded down with pumice stone, to make it a smoother surface. This leaves a fine dust of pumice and canvas bits on the surface, but they can’t simply be wiped off, or it will damage the canvas. Instead, the dust is bounced off the canvas by the priming team by slapping it lightly with special tools.

Once this is complete, the primers grind up the animal glue in a meat grinder. The ground glue is then laid on the canvas and spread in a very precise manner with long “knives,” tools that look like ultra-huge painter’s palette knives. This has to be done in a very specific way, or the glue will dry incorrectly.

After this, the primers make sure the glue is equally spread, and then they let it dry. When it’s dry, which takes many hours, they inspect it again and then begin to mix the gesso (or primer). They then apply the gesso with the same knives that were used to spread the glue, and again, it must be very specific.

The gesso is then left to dry, and another layer is applied on top of it. This process is repeated until the desired level of smoothness is achieved, and sometimes the layers are sanded before another is laid down. The final layer is never sanded, however, and after a final inspection, the canvas is ready to go.

Quick, Modern Priming

To apply a modern primer, the process is almost exactly the same as the old method, just minus a few steps. These new primers come premixed and can be applied directly to a canvas with a brush, alleviating the need for glue, knives or other special tools. Modern primers are usually created to work well with both oil and acrylic paint, though the old school method is always better for oil, as the animal glue bonds best with oil paint. Sanding can be done between layers of modern primer, and again, the last layer is always un-sanded. Modern primers are essentially made to make priming a quicker, easier and more accessible process for the artist, but it still takes years to master the process, even with recent advancements. Without knowing exactly what you’re doing, it’s very easy to ruin an expensive canvas in a variety of ways, including priming it in-equally, leaving bumps and putting too much or too little primer on the surface. Additionally, much canvas priming in the modern way is done with exact machines, which produce an unbeatable and perfect level of priming that is incredibly hard to match by hand.

And there you have it: the old and venerated process of priming a canvas to be painted. While learning to prime a canvas can be a fun and interesting journey, for most artists, it’s simply too much trouble, time and cost to be worth the experience. When you’re ready to paint, you’re ready, and you want a canvas that’s already perfectly set up, waiting for your creation to take life. Take our word for it, and unless you’re willing to put in countless hours and a large amount of money into becoming a master primer, let us take the burden off your shoulders. So if you’re considering priming your own canvas to save money, consider this: We’ll provide you with gorgeous, perfectly primed canvases, and we’ll do it at a fraction of the cost that it would cost you to prime your own. And that’s quality that just can’t be bested!

When it comes to Fine Art, American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of my favorites.  During his lifetime, Basquiat was a force to be reckoned with because of his inhibitions with painting and collage art, his daring use of blank canvas , and his bold retelling of history.  Through storytelling, Basquiat was able to mirror his own life and create social commentary through his artwork.

Have Canvas, Will Paint

The blank canvas was only the starting point for Basquiat – he saw an opportunity to fully express his inner life and monologue.  His early work was in the form of graffiti art, an art form that was generated in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1960s and early 70s.  Not known by his birth name, SAMO was the pseudonym Basquiat chose to use during his early career, most likely for identity protection (since graffiti is considered vandalism) and to remain authentic among his peer group.

Not only was he one of the most creative artists of the 1980s, he was revered by Andy Warhol – the world famous pop cultural artist and designer for his artwork and his remarkable tenacity.  It has been well documented that Basquiat was so passionate about his canvas art that he walked right up to Warhol in a crowded restaurant, introduced himself, and gave him a Basquiat original.  How remarkable!

Canvas and the Artist

It is obvious to many admirers that Basquiat was a master of blank canvas and had a very special relationship with it.  Like many genius-level craftspeople, this public relationship ended in legacy.  This particular legacy shows how truly unique the artist relationship with canvas is, and how canvas can turn a regular human being into a deity of the modern ages!

During my study of Basquiat, I realized that the blank canvas is more than just large pieces of segmented textile waiting to be covered by paints or glue or various materials.  The canvas is an incredible holding space for amazing ideas!  This has rocket launched my love of art in so many ways and I am incredibly excited to start experimenting with new painting techniques and collage crafting on my blank canvases from Canvas Lot!

Being a discerning consumer and a professional artist in Austin, TX I am very particular about where I purchase my canvas because it is acting as the foundation for my most treasured possession: my ideas!

As I mentioned before, I am highly motivated by the artwork of Basquiat and I often look forward to delving deeply into my own inner workings to be as bold and as brave as he was while gazing at his blank canvases.  It feels wonderful to be inspired by a master of canvas!

For our return to the most famous paintings ever laid down on canvas, we step back only a relatively short amount of time, to the 20th Century. The 1900’s were a wild and exciting time in the world of art, with dozens upon dozens of new techniques, styles and ideas attempted, some more successfully than others. Here are eight of the most famous works ever done on canvas from the 1900’s, a century of great art if ever there was one.

1900-1950

Seven years after the turn of the century, Austrian Symbolist Gustav Klimt used gold leaf and a gorgeous golden, red and green color palette to create the massively popular painting known as The Kiss. This massively reprinted painting measures nearly two meters by two meters and depicts two lovers engaged in a kiss upon a bed of grass and flowers.

For the surrealist fans out there, The Persistence of Memory by Dalí is often considered the holy grail of that school of work. Dalí’s highly repeated melting clock image was first introduced in this 1931 painting, which is actually rather small at 24 x 33 centimeters and is currently on display in The MOMA in New York City.

Painted in the very next year, we have Picasso’s highly regarded Le Rêve, a controversial work depicting a woman in an erotic pose distorted as many of Picasso’s works were. The work was famously sold for $48.4 million in 1997 when the highly regarded Ganz art-collecting family needed money to settle an inheritance tax bill. This surprised the art world and made the work the 6th most expensive painting of all time at the time of its purchase.

Ending our entries from the first half of the century is another Picasso painting, perhaps more well-known than Le Rêve, a huge 3.5 x 7.75 meter painting known as Guernica. Picasso painted Guernica in 1937 after hearing of a vicious bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The oil on canvas work is meant to show the horrors of war and has become a very strong symbol for the anti-war movement.

1950-2000

Marking a huge departure in style and technique from anything that had come before, and any other painting on this list, we start the second half of the 20th Century with Jackson Pollock’s polarizing Number 1, 1950, more commonly known as Lavender Mist. Unlike any other painting on this list, Lavender Mist features oil paint poured directly onto unstretched, unprimed raw canvas.

As hard as it might be to pick iconic artist Andy Warhol’s most famous work, in the end it simply has to be his depictions of pop culture figure Marilyn Monroe, the most famous of which is called Marilyn Diptych. This 1962 painting is the only one on our list painted with acrylic silkscreen paints, which were used to create fifty portraits of Marilyn on one piece of canvas, half in color and half in black and white. The work was completed only weeks after the actress had died, and the photo it is based on is from the 1953 film Niagra.

Next we take a look at Magritte’s 1964 surrealist work called The Son of Man. This instantly recognizable oil painting of a man in a suit with a bowler hat and a green apple in front of his face is a cultural icon so prominent that it has been featured or referenced in multiple, and TV shows and music videos, including The Thomas Crown Affair, Michael Jackon’s “Scream,” The Simpsons and Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain.

And finally, after sifting through centuries of works, we come to the one that has most recently become famous, partly due to its recent completion, partly to its controversial subject, and partly to the article written about it in 2011. This is Sexual Explosion by Jim Warren, painted in 1976 in oils. The work shows a nude woman whose body is crack and exploding while she sits in an ocean, with clouds and light around her. Though the painting is certainly famous, it should be noted that the painting has grown in fame recently due to a group known as the Art Collector’s Website, who used Google Images searches and rankings to attempt to determine the most famous paintings in the world. While the painting came in at #4 out of 10, it should be noted that only a year after the ACW article came out, that same organization actually attempted to sell the work.

It’s undeniably difficult to compile a list such as this one without leaving out hundreds of paintings that are more than worthy to be included, but it’s also undeniable that these fifteen paintings are among the most famous canvases ever touched by an artist. We hope that this list has given you a little more information about some of the works you’ve doubtless seen pretty much everywhere, and if there’s a painting not listed here that you think needs mentioning, let us know! It’s interesting to note that we’re in the early years of a new century, and art is only growing in popularity. Who knows what amazing and wondrous canvas works will be created in the 2000’s, but you can be sure, when we find out about them, we’ll be the first to let you know.

Simple Art Projects For Kids

When it comes to art projects for the grade school-aged child, the possibilities are endless!  My favorite art pieces created by the young ones reflect the innocence of a childlike perspective and the thought provoking use of materials on blank canvas.  When it comes to art projects for children I recommend three interesting uses of atypical materials but first… Grab a Canvas!  Now, let’s take a look at some very cool and simple children’s canvas art projects!

Project Idea No. 1 – Melt Those Crayons!

If you’re like many parents, you’ve had your fair share of Crayon-related incidents where walls covered in bright flamingo pink doodles and the mighty scribbling of incoherent blue letters suddenly appear out of thin air onto a favorite daily planner.  Well, why not take those pesky little Crayons out of their yellow box holding cell and attach them to blank canvas?  Of course, you will need to be with your child during this project because there is a high level of heat involved but the result of engaging your super awesome kid with this nifty melting Crayon project is destined to be a hit among your fellow parental group and your child’s playground mates.

Project Idea No. 2 – Incorporate Culture!

Art is often thought of as fun and an aide to the wildest of imaginations but for young pupils it can also be a covert world history project!  A culture that I recommend helping your young child incorporate into their new masterpieces is that of the Japanese culture.  The Japanese have centuries-old art techniques that are used in Western culture, and with very good reason – it is pleasant to receive visually and wildly popular as a communicative information source.  If you’re familiar with cherry blossoms and unique typographical characters, you have probably admired the artwork of an individual influenced by Japanese culture or who is a member of it!  I recommend this culture without reservation: I believe that we all benefit by learning from various cultures.  Pick one that you and your child can learn about and get to work on your canvas!

Project Idea No. 3 – The Self-Portrait!

Painting a self-portrait on canvas can be an eye-opening experience for your child and even for you – you have intimate view of how your beautiful child seems her or himself through their very own interpretation.  How cool!  First, have your child sketch their self-portrait before working on the blank canvas, with their face as the primary focal point.  Pick a color or a scene as the background and paint it on the canvas.  After the paint is dry, begin the painting the self-portrait!  You be thrilled by what your child comes up with and will be able to keep a lovely portrait of them for years to come.

As you can see, children’s art projects can be as diverse as the materials being used.  These projects also add a whole other level of fun and engagement with the young artist and their audience.  For more creative ideas, keep your virtual bookmark on Canvas Lot’s Blog!

Here’s a fun game to play if you ever happen to be in a room full of artists and/or art lovers. In the most nonchalant and innocent manner you can muster, ask the crowd what they think the most famous painting in the world is. Then sit back and enjoy, as you’re about to be treated to at least half an hour of debate that will more than likely escalate, possibly ending in heated exchanges and hurt feelings. Like the infamous “What is art?” and “Who is the best artist?” questions, “What is the most famous painting?” is a question that art aficionados of every level have an opinion on, though it probably has no right answer.

Despite the lack of any real method to determine the holder of this honor accurately, people certainly do try, and in recent years, the internet has allowed the flourishing of a huge number of “Most Famous Paintings” lists. While none of the available lists are perfect, and many are just examples of downright favoritism by anonymous contributors, what we can glean from these lists is a selection of paintings that are among the most famous ever to exist. By doing away with the ubiquitous need to rank these paintings, we can find ourselves a set of paintings that, in no particular order, are very well-known.

Of course, on this blog we’re mostly interested in those works that were created on that most excellent and beloved surface in the art world, that being canvas of course. So here’s a quick two-part look at fifteen canvases that can undoubtedly be referred to as some of the most famous in the world, focusing first on those pre-1900’s, and then those of the most recently past century.

Pre- 1800’s

As canvas is a relatively newly dominant surface in the world of art, it took a while after its invention for it to be the choice that prominent artists used for their masterpieces. Among those canvas-based pieces painted prior to the 1800’s that have become very famous are three in particular that stand out.

The first of these is Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, an infinitely well-known piece depicting the birth of the Roman goddess Venus emerging from the sea, birthed as a fully grown woman standing in a clam and attended by angels and a woman who seeks to clothe her. This gorgeous tempera on canvas work painted in 1486 is currently held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and is a gorgeous representation of Early Italian Renaissance work.

Next we have the very different oil painting popularly known as The Night Watch. This 1642 piece by the master Rembrandt is actually called The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq. The painting depicts Cocq, who commissioned it, and his men as they prepare to embark on a hunt. It’s particularly notable for its use of chiaroscuro (light and shadow) and for having been once cut down on all four sides as well as having been at point point attacked by a vandal with a butter knife.

Our third pre-1800’s piece is by the lighting genius Vermeer, 1667’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. This elegant oil picture of a woman wearing an earring and turning toward the viewer is actually more than likely not supposed to be a portrait, but instead what is known as a “tronie,” which is best defined as a picture of an anonymous head that is more about what’s happening than depicting a real person.

The 1800’s

Once the 1800s hit, canvas was king. Though of course other surfaces were still in use, many of the masterpieces of this era were done on canvas.

French Impressionist and world-renowned painter of scenes Pierre-August Renoir is first on our list with his incredible Luncheon of the Boating Party done with oil paints around 1880-1881. An excellent example of the Impressionist style, this work depicting a group of casual French revelers is famed for its bright colors and was controversially restored in 1954.

The next three paintings rounding out our pre-1900’s list are all by the same artist, possibly the most well-known artist of all time: Vincent Van Gogh. Three of Gogh’s amazing and most beloved works are Starry Night Over the Rhone, The Starry Night (which are often mistaken for each other) and Irises. The three were painted from 1888 to 1889 and are highly colorful, very stylized pieces. The two night scenes, in particular, are known for their depiction of stars and lights, and Starry Night is commonly listed in the top three most famous paintings ever.

It may seem odd that only seven of our fifteen famous canvases are from other centuries besides the 20^th, but consider two things: First, as we’ve mentioned, canvas became more dominant as a surface the farther along history moved. Second, art and artists grew to be more and more visible and easy to view as technology advanced, leading to more reproductions of the art and a wider media-net for each piece to be caught in. Because of these things, as well as perhaps simply that modern people often prefer art from their own time, most of our list falls within the 1900’s, and we have some pretty interesting facts to back that choice up with. As always, stay tuned to this spot, as next up we’ll show you eight more incredible works of canvas art you’re sure to recognize.

Have you ever painted on raw canvas? If you have, you know that it’s a bit of a challenge. Though it can provide an interesting experience and a unique aesthetic end-result, raw canvas is generally not the best surface to produce lasting art on. For one thing, paint, especially oil paint, will eventually deteriorate the canvas and your work will be ruined. Additionally, the texture of the weave on the canvas will not only show up through most layers of paint, it also gives a rough feel to applying paint to canvas, something many artists dislike.

Because of these reasons, most artists paint on canvases that have gone through a process called priming. Priming is essentially applying a layer of paint-like substance called primer or gesso to raw canvas, which both seals the canvas from damage and smoothes out the surface. Many canvases, such as those we produce, come pre-primed, which allows you the artist to jump straight into painting. However, primer is an extremely interesting material with a long history, and it’s a good idea for artists of all levels to be at least somewhat familiar with it.

Traditional Gesso

Primer is most commonly referred to by its classic name, gesso. Traditional gesso is a type of paint made from chalk, pigment and a binding agent made from animal skin. The animal skin glue seals the canvas fibers and provides an agent for the chalk and pigment to be suspended in. The chalk is used to provide a thick texture to smooth out the surface, while the pigment, usually white or off white, gives the canvas a completely blank and uniform color from which the artist can begin to paint. This kind of gesso has been in use for hundreds of years, and accepts almost any kind of paint, but is more difficult to create and use than modern gesso.

Modern or Acrylic Gesso

Modern gesso is known as acrylic gesso, and technically it is not gesso at all. Its formula is much more chemically complicated, including pigment (again, usually white), a medium latex acrylic polymer mixed with calcium carbonate and a variety of other chemicals used to provide long-life and flexibility, such as ammonia. This kind of gesso is often produced in large premixed amounts by art suppliers and can be bought in stores by artists, eliminating the need for artists to go through the lengthy mixing process themselves.

While most experts will tell you that acrylic gesso works well with any kind of paint, oil paint can eventually de-bind from acrylic gesso, peeling off in a process known as delamination. Though this often takes decades, it’s a good idea for artists wanting to create a long-lasting oil painting to use traditional gesso, which was created and formulated specifically to work well with oil paints. In fact, most professional artists working in oil avoid acrylic gesso, as nothing’s worse than creating a masterpiece that slowly falls apart.

The Future of Gesso

Like many other areas of art supply manufacturing, gesso production is constantly being updated and refined through modern processes. For instance, in recent years scientists have created a soy-based gesso that utilizes a soy-vegetable oil acrylic and what is known as soy ester along with new technological processes to create a gesso that is considered somewhat better to use with oil paints than acrylic gesso. Acrylic gesso itself is a relatively contemporary invention, and it will be very interesting to see what new types of gesso technology is able to create in the next few years. More than likely, we’ll see gessos that are even better sealing, bonding and smoothing in a very short time.

Gesso is a fundamental part of art creation, and a truly remarkable substance. Though, as we mentioned, it is often pre-applied to canvas that you purchase from quality canvas-makers, such as CanvasLot, it’s always a good idea to know more about the materials one uses as an artist. Now that you know a bit about what gesso/primer actually is, you’re ready to learn how it’s used and applied! Stay tuned to this blog for an in depth look at how experts, such as the folk who produce our canvases, utilize this fascinating material to create the most excellent painting surfaces available.

A blank canvas, yet to be touched with an artist’s mark, is a rather unassuming thing. While there’s certainly an aesthetic pleasure to be had in its straight lines, finely woven texture and stark, particular whiteness, a blank canvas is highly unlikely to garner an excessive amount of attention.

However, when that same humble, if beautiful, piece of unadorned fabric-on-stretchers happens to meet with an agent of color and the mind of an artist, it’s suddenly transformed into a different object entirely, and one with infinite possibilities. Some canvases may even be so particularly and uniquely marked that they become remarkable, and those canvases can be very interesting indeed. Today we’re venturing once again into the subject of the world’s most remarkable canvases, this time looking at the world’s smallest and first canvases ever painted. While both instances are difficult to determine exactly, the attempt to do both reveals some very interesting results.

The World’s Smallest Canvas…Competition

In our last remarkable canvas entry we showed you the world’s largest canvas, but this time we’re sliding down to the other end of the spectrum. Unlike the world’s largest, however, there is no recognized “world’s smallest canvas,” but what there is, is perhaps just as interesting. We’re talking about the World’s Smallest Stretched Canvas Competition held by the Hudson Valley Gallery in Cornwall-on-Hudson, a small town in the southern tip of New York state. Founded in 2008, the competition is put on once a year by artist and gallery owner Paul Gould, and it attracts a few hundred entries every time it’s held.

The rules of the competition are simple: each entry must be an oil or acrylic painting on a 1” x 2” canvas and it must be mailed or hand-delivered to the gallery by a set date along with a $10 entry fee. A panel of judges then selects the best of the bunch, and the artist is awarded a $500 prize. Each painting in the competition must be allowed to be for sale by the gallery, who then collects the profits. If you’re interested, take a look at their website and keep an eye out for the next instance of the competition!

The Search for the Earliest Painted Canvas in History

Like the world’s smallest canvas, it’s difficult to pinpoint the earliest painting on canvas, as many have not survived and some are difficult to date. However, unlike the smallest, we do have a few particular instances of canvas use that are good candidates for the world’s oldest surviving canvas painting. One well-known early canvas painting is recognized as the earliest oil painting on canvas, a French painting from 1410 known as Madonna with Angels. However, another canvas painting from twenty years earlier in 1390, interestingly also a Madonna, called The Madonna of Humility by Lippo di Dalmasio is held by The National Gallery in London to be their earliest canvas painting. A 1955 Time magazine article talks about a 13^th century canvas painting that is, surprise, also of Madonna, though that particular instance was canvas over panel.

In terms of famous artists, the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini was known to use canvas in his works, which were created in the mid to late 15^th century. Bellini is well-known for being the teacher of Titian, another famous painter who used canvas a great deal. While canvas didn’t become popular as a medium for painting until the 1400’s, there’s evidence that something like canvas was in use far before that. Ancient Egyptians and Romans painted on a linen fabric plastered over surfaces, especially in funerary objects. Additionally, the use of painted cotton sheets in celebrations is recognizable as far back as the Middle Ages, if not farther, though these sheets were likely not woven in the same manner as traditional canvas.

Though we may never know the exact oldest use of canvas, and though the smallest canvas designation is both difficult to determine and likely to change, it can’t be denied that the search for both is useful as it reveals some absolutely spectacular uses of the material that is now the dominant medium for artistic creation. With technology in the fields of dating and canvas creation advancing every year, and more and more remarkably small or ancient canvases are brought to light, it’s likely that more information on this field will be available in the next few decades. With the search for the smallest and oldest canvases already having revealed such remarkable works, we simply can’t wait to see what comes to light next.

You hear the word “canvas” and it’s hard not to immediately think of French artists lugging their easels through fields in search of the perfect landscape, or artistic wild men slinging paint onto canvas-bedecked floors in the fashion of Jackson Pollack. Maybe you remember all the times you’ve said “Nice job, grandma” as she shows you her latest painting of flowers, or maybe you’re just reminded of all the difficulty you went through trying to stretch your own canvas for that fast-approaching art project.

The word is almost inextricably linked with art, and yet remarkably, the durable material wasn’t even widely used by artists until the 15th century. Because of the unique way that canvas is woven, it creates a strong material that serves a variety of purposes. We’ll take a look at a few other instances of canvas use, some perhaps surprising, to appreciate the versatility of this common painting surface.

We would never suggest trying to float a river atop one of our custom-stretched canvases, but canvas does happen to make an excellent material for canoes. Not entirely dissimilar from our process of stretching canvas, a waterproofed canvas is stretched taut over the wooden hull of the canoes. These wood-and-canvas canoes were a favorite for President Teddy Roosevelt on his river expeditions, and are still widely in use today.

Even before its use in canoes, canvas had a long history in the maritime industry. For hundreds of years, canvas has been the material of choice for sails; in fact, the abundance of canvas sails in Renaissance Venice is what led to artists using the material in the first place. The thick and hardy weave holds up well to the often-rough conditions of the sea, weathering storms and sun both. Constructing canvas sails was once a highly valued art, and to this day sailors are still taught sewing techniques in order to patch their sails with spare canvas.

Even if you don’t spend much time on boats, there are plenty of uses for canvas on dry land. If you’ve ever bounced on a trampoline, chances are you were jumping on canvas. Now we of course would rather you not order our custom-stretched canvases only for bouncing and back-flips, but stretched tightly enough, canvas can rocket you into the air. Because canvas itself is not elastic, however, it needs to be connected to the trampoline by tightly-wound springs that provide all the bounce power.

While advances in technology have made canvas clothing somewhat uncommon these days, you can still find it where there’s a need for a durable material. Many martial arts uniforms include items made of canvas, where it holds up well against barrages of punches and kicks. Some footwear, such as dock shoes and field boots, also often use canvas to provide durability in harsh conditions where heavier shoes would be impractical. Canvas is also a common material for patio umbrellas and awnings.

Canvas really is a dynamic material, and it really is everywhere; you probably even have canvas in your home. A backpack, a traveling bag, a lampshade, a rug; anything made of fabric can potentially be made of canvas. We think canvas is an incredible thing, with a rich and interesting history that only grows with each passing day. Perhaps, after reading a bit about the many uses for this wonder fabric, you might feel the same way we do about canvas.