Beneath the Paint: A Stretcher Like No Other

Po standing with her stretcher without canvas.

Exciting things are happening with my commissioned 48″ X 48″ muralesque painting of “My Creation.”

Today, the final steps of the the stretcher creation journey before stretching the canvas were completed, and the canvas will hopefully be stretched with 12oz. cotton canvas by the end of tomorrow. The stretcher is different from most other canvas stretchers as I am using a solid face sign board with a stretcher frame attached made of red oak to create a stretcher with a statement-making depth of 2 1/4″.

These are the materials used as mentioned above.

I decided to make a stretcher with a solid surface on which to stretch the canvas to provide the following two things:

A layer of protection for hanging and transporting such a large piece
To assure the image is able to have a chic, flat, ‘muralesque’ appearance.

Stretcher hung on Po’s wall without canvas.

Not many know or even think about the process that goes on with a stretched painting before the paint even hits the canvas. However, as a sculptress, I find what you don’t see behind the painting just as amazing as the completed painting seen on the surface.

Here are some photos to document the stretcher making process: