As an artist myself I’ve been stretching and priming canvas for over 35 years.

We are now offering custom built stretched canvasses and panels for artists; raw canvas or fine linen, primed or un primed in any size. You are not limited to any standard sizes with these. The panels can be any size as well. They are smooth primed and cradled wood. The cradle gives a depth around the sides and support for structure.

We use only professional grade stretcher* stock in a few thicknesses, depending on what size you are wanting. Our small to stock is 3/4″ thick with wooden keyed corners with cross braces when spanning longer than 36″ in any direction.

*A word about stretcher bars:

True stretcher bars are not fixed in the corners, rather they are mortised so that they can be expanded with corner keys or expansion hardware. See photo above with metal expansion hardware.. This allows for further tensioning after the canvas is stretched for a perfectly uniform and tight canvas.

Any wooden bars that are glued, nailed or joined in some way are not stretchers but are called strainers. These cannot be expanded to get a good tight stretch. Also, since canvas can get more slack in more humid times of the year or locations, the keyed bars can be used to tighten up a previously stretched canvas. This is important.

We sometime use strainers as a bracing inside of a frame for additional support.

The wood is either kiln dried pine or bass wood. Both have excellent strength and are milled perfectly with a raised outer edge bead, which is industry standard to keep the surface of the canvas from resting on the face of the rail.

Our medium stock is 1 1/4″ thick.(pictured below) These give more dimension on the sides. They also can be cross braced and will have either wooden keys or metal expansion hardware.

Our largest stock is 1 3/8 thick. This one can come additionally with an aluminum bracing around the inside for maximum structure ability. There is virtually no size limit on these as the rails can be spliced together – Yes! we could bake a 20′ long canvas for you.

Priming, in my opinion, is somewhat of a personal preference. Some artists have there own personal way of preparing their canvas for painting. I personally like several coats of acrylic gesso with some sanding in between. Some artists prefer oil priming and we can do that as well.

We can use either 100% cotton or linen depending on your preference.

Pricing for these is based on the particulars so give us a call.

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