Canvas art has the potential to encompass a diverse range of applications, styles and techniques. Painters, mixed media artists and some sculptors use canvas as a support for a variety of approaches to two dimensional and three dimensional artistic media.
Canvas for Painting
Painters use canvases as a support to hold paint in place when painting. Painters apply a white, water-based liquid called gesso to the canvas in layers before painting to keep the paint from deteriorating the canvas over time. When the gesso is dried and sanded, painting begins. Painters primarily use either oil paint, gouache or acrylic paints to render their images. Polyurethane paint and enamel paint are not normally used, as these types of paint deteriorate the canvas over time. Painters also may use oil sticks in combination with one or more types of paint.
Painting Subject Matter
Artists use canvas art to communicate ideas, express inner feelings and to create visually dynamic windows into another world. Contemporary painting styles may be broken down into three distinct subsets. Pure abstraction relies on shapes and colors to express emotions, feelings or moods. In branches of art such as surrealism and impressionism, objects appear differently from their real-life appearance. Representational art strives to imitate or represent real-life people, situations, and objects in a painted format.
Mixed Media
Mixed media artists use canvases to support their work as well. Canvases are wrapped over a sturdy support such as a board, so that the mixed media may be applied to the canvas. Mixed media artists use a variety of materials such as paper, paint, photos, inanimate objects, detritus, plastic and dry media. Mixed media artists make connections and create relationships between portions of the two-dimensional surface that contain separate types of media. People relate to the different objects in combination with varying viewpoints. A great deal of mixed media art capitalizes on this form of ambiguity.
Sculptural Relief
Sculptors may also use canvases as a support for sculptural reliefs, which are three dimensional works which project from a two dimensional surface. Mixed media artists and painters may also create a relief-like artwork by allowing the art to move outwards from the flat surface with texture or projecting materials. Sculptors may stack objects from the surface, in an additive process, or they may place something on the surface and carve into it, a subtractive process. Additive and subtractive processes may be utilized in combination, and these processes are the foundation from which most sculptures arise.
Potential Availiable with Flat Surfaces
The creative potential that is available with a blank canvas over board is nearly unlimited. Artists may use a combination of painting, mixed media sections, and a three-dimensional feel all on one canvas. Canvases wrapped over boards give the artist a sturdy surface on which to work. The canvas doesn't move when painting, and the objects do not move or slump when attached to the canvas. The canvas may be secured to the board in sculptural or mixed media occasions with a coat of glue, and flat surfaces may be varnished to ensure the maximum longevity of the artwork's life span. The nature of the artwork is dependent on the point of view of the artist who approaches it.
