I have been using a method of adhering a pre-primed (acrylic) linen canvas onto a panel (I am using Aluminium Composite Material for the panel). I use an artist grade pH-neutral PVA glue between the panel and the raw side of the primed canvas.
A concern has been raised about, under the pressure of the gluing process, the PVA oozing through the weave of the canvas, and then through smaller pin holes in the priming to end up on the front surface of the primed side of the canvas.
This effect has already been seen on purchased ready-made panels. I am about to test whether it will occur on my handmade panels.
My question is: if PVA glue does end up on the front surface of a pre-primed canvas will this cause problems: eg paint peeling away from the PVA over time? Thanks.
Hi, thanks. Does the same advice apply to normal oil paint. I made no mention of egg tempura, and am not using that.
Thanks. Appreciated.
To adhere long term, egg tempera paint ideally needs two things: a surface that has (1) tooth or roughness (even if microscopic), and (2) porosity, absorbency. A dried layer of PVA glue has none of those attributes; it is slick, smooth and non-absorbent. This doesn’t mean egg tempera won’t adhere well in the short term (it likely will), it may even adhere well long term (depending on how well the painting is constructed overall, and the conditions under which it lives) – but you’ve decreased the odds of it aging well. Or course it depends on how much PVA seeps through; if merely a miniscule amount, it may not have much of an impact. There are always so many variables in a painting it’s hard to be too definitive about any of the above. But, generally speaking, you don’t want to paint egg tempera on top of plastic, which is essentially what PVA is.
Now a couple of questions for you:
1. Have you painted egg tempera atop an aluminum panel before? The lack of absorbency of aluminum can cause problems with water-intensive working methods in egg tempera, but aluminum panels can work for primarily dry brush techniques.
2. Are you applying gesso atop the canvas, or painting in ET directly atop the canvas? Gesso provides the necessary tooth and absorbency for ET to behave as it should and to adhere well – working atop canvas (especially canvas atop aluminum) does not.
So those are a couple of things to consider. Hope that clarifies. Koo Schadler
Whoops – I read the “eg” as a misspelled “egg” and thought you were referring to egg tempera (since you didn’t mention a specific paint). Regarding oil paint, your plan should work fine but it’s best if one of the oil moderators chimed in (since my specialty is tempera).
It should be fine to paint with oils over the PVA adhesive, since it’s even a recommended practice to paint with oils directly over a PVA sized canvas, without any additional priming layers over top. Some PVA adhesives are water soluble, although the majority aren’t. This should be kept in mind when painting in acrylics.
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