Welcome to the Carriveau Arts Unlimited blog about canvas stretching. Canvas stretching made easy! While it is easy enough to simply buy an already stretched canvas, people that know their art truely appreciate an artist stretched canvas. It is not that difficult and can save the artist money.


The canvas stretcher is the wooden frame in which the canvas is stretched on. Usually, if you buy the canvas stretcher from a store you have to piece it together. Make sure the corners are squared at 90 degrees, otherwise this could lead to problems if you are going to frame your oil painting in the future. If you know someone who is wood shop savy maybe approach them about making some canvas stretchers for you.  If you have the proper equipment and know how they are not that hard to make, if not, they are available to be pieced together from most craft stores.


Another important ingredient in the creation of your artist canvas is the canvas material. You want 100% cotton. You always want your art supplies to be archival as to preserve your works. There are varying degrees and prices of canvas. Some of the best canvas is linen.

Check out this short instructional video:

Stretch it...Stretch it real good!


This is the first step in starting an oil painting. Sometimes the hardest part is getting started, but once you do, then it is all easy peezy.

Finally, always remember to gesso your canvas several times before you begin painting on it.
Happy Painting!!!!!

Hello from Carriveau Arts Unlimited! Today's post will be about how to mix oil paints. Check out this short video to get a visual on how it is done.

Mixing it UP!



Unlike other forms of painting, oil painting requires a little more prep work. It is not like watercolor in which you simply add water to get the shade desired. Oils can be mixed to be thin and sheer or thick and opaque with texture that can leave a good representation of the artist's brush strokes. How you mix your oil paints can also contribute to a layering affect in your works as mentioned on the video.



Most oil paintings consist of several layers of paint. This adds to the richness of the image. It also helps in the illusions that the artist is trying to create such as rays of sunshine, haziness or mist or as mentioned in the video the illusion of water.


Before applying any oil paints to your canvas remember to paint several layers of gesso to protect your canvas from being eaten away by the medium in which you mix with the oils. The gesso provides added protection and enhances your oils. Typically, three layers of gesso with suffice, but some artists will add many, many layers of gesso and repeatedly sand it down to get the smoothest surface they can.


I hope you enjoyed the video and it helped in showing how to mix oil paints.

Happy painting!!!!

Good day all! This blog will be about color theory and color symbolism. While this subject might be thought of as simple and elementary, it is an important part of our everyday life. We corrodinate much of our life and styles through what our color preferences are. I also was recently asked by an educated adult what the primary colors are and when I told her she did not believe me. Many people learned about the color wheel in grade school, but sometimes these things have a way of being forgotten. This made me think about a simple review, just a refresher, on what our primary and secondary colors are and why they are important.

I did discuss the basics of the color wheel in this podcast:
                             Color Theory












The artists I gave in the examples are just a few of the artists that have used and are still using color to set the mood or tone of the images they are creating. Artists are not the only ones that rely on color for their work. Just think of all the professions that rely on colors to speak to them. It would be hard for athletes to compete in group sports if we didn't contrast teams with different colors. Different schools have been recognized by their school colors. Professions are identified through colors, such as police are identified with the color blue and doctors with white. People who work in any kind of transportation professional regularly identify with different colored symbols daily to perform their jobs. The color theory may seem like a simple idea, but it plays a big part in everything we do.

Carriveau Arts Unlimited: Archival Materials and COUPON

Most artists that have been working in the field of art for some time understand the importance of using archival materials opposed to non-archival materials. Most archival supplies are made of pure ingredience, low acidity. Usually archival western papers are made of 100% rage, cotton, or linen. They must have a neutral or low ph, more base then acidic.
The quality of using archival materials makes up for the cost. Colors that won't fade or yellow in products such as oil, watercolor and acrylic paints, paper, varnishes and glues. The key word to notice is "archival". If it is not listed on the label, then it probably isn't. These materials are a little more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
At Carriveau ArtsUnlimited we carry many lines, in many mediums of art supplies. We want the art you produce to be preserved for generations to come. You could be the next Van Gogh, make sure you can share your creations with future artists.

 
The image on the left is of an aged painting with yellowed varnish. The image on the right is the cleaned and retouched painting. It is an example of what can happen to art over an extensive amount of time. Environment plays a large part in the condition of art works over time. Using archival materials makes it possible to retain the arts original image.

References:
www.ebay.com/gds/Using-Archival-Materials-in-Art
www.thefreedictionary.com/archival
www.enmini.hu/finearts/archival.html
www.artgallery101.com- image

Carriveau Arts Unlimited - Oil Painting

Carriveau Arts Unlimited welcomes all artists of various experiences. We also want to help educate people about the different mediums to help them execute their ideas. In this blog I will be discussing oil painting.

 Traditional oil paint is created by mixing oil with a colored pigment. A thinning medium is needed to help dilute the paint to the consistency that the artist desires. In traditional oil paints this is usually linseed oil, mineral spirits or liquin. In water soluable oil paints the only thinner need is water. The less you dilute the oil paint with a thinner the thicker it is which is called impasto. This allows the artist to work more texture into their painting. It is easier to see the artists brush strokes. Typically, individuals that are in the market to buy oil paintings do so for this reason- the artist's signature brush strokes. Here is a great example of a famous artist known for his brush stroke.

This is VanGogh's The Night Cafe. You can see how he expressed himself through his brush stroke. The long strokes working their way toward the viewer in the floor boards and the illusion of the lamps glowing by short sharpe brush strokes emanating from the light source. He also used different colors to portray his mood. Green and yellow were colors he used when he was in a good stage of his life, as he used in this painting.

The thinning of oil paint to the point of transparency is called glaze. This works great to create the illusion of layering. The technique is successful when painting water scenes or anything that requires a sheer layer of color.

Traditional oils usually take a couple of weeks to a couple of months to dry. This allows the painting to be reworked to the artists liking. If an artist prefers to work quicker then they should try using the water miscible oil paints which can dry as quick as one day to one week.

References:
www.en.wikipedia.org
www.athenalearning.com
www.commons.wikimedia.org-image of Van Gogh's, The Night Cafe.