Plywood Prep

It all begins here:

With a blank piece of plywood.

Actually, it began at the point I was choosing the plywood at the hardware store (from most Australians this would be Bunnings).

Ultimately you can paint on anything. You could paint on an old pizza box.

But why would you, why degrade your work. You’ve probably given up a lot for the mere free time and space to paint. Don’t insult the time that God/Allah/Yahweh/Odin/Marx//Gaia/Stephen-Hawking gave you and that you gave yourself.

At the other end of the scale, you can go for something really luxurient, like, I dunno: a specially-cut and seasoned piece of unknotted hardwood, or a linen-canvas…

But do indulgently expensive surfaces really help you paint better? From my brief dalliance with them, I would say the answer is no. In fact it’s worse, you won’t ever use them for fear of ruining your prized support surface. You don’t want that pressure. The other argument is of course what is the most durable surface to paint on. Most people will say getting a Baltic Birch hardboard from the art supply shop will be the way to go. I’ve bought these and painted on them and they are great, but they do cost more for a single piece, and then you get back to the whole preciousness problem.

Plywood is relatively cheap and reliable. That means you’ll paint confidently. You’ll be inspired to put your best ideas onto the surface and paint as well as you can, but you won’t be concerned about stuffing up so much.

At the hardware shop, you want to look for marine ply. This is a form of plywood designed to be more moisture resistant than the standard (although ideally you should always keep your supports dry regardless, unless you are actually in the act of painting) and made from better grades of wood (at least it should be). Find a piece which isn’t warping and has no knots if you can (knots are those dark discs you see in wood cuts and are generally structural weak points, but they can also show easily when painting a primer layer and you may have to paint a thicker coat to conceal it.

As you can see by the image, I’m cutting mine up, for this piece i’ll have two boards, so two paintings (one is going to be relatively big by my standards).

You’ll see alot of debate online about the pros and cons of different materials, and with those who have gone the plywood route, various concerns about warping wood, cracks on the edges, slightly uneven sides etc.

The older I’ve gotten, the less I give a shit about all this.

I have paintings with frayed edges, a wonky angle on one side, a slight bow in the middle, but I really don’t think it detracts from the work at all and I doubt the viewer cares that much. These days there’s a way to hang pretty much anything on a wall. When you look at some of the garbage that’s painted on a premium, immaculately prepared surface, you stress less. The painting should ultimately be about it’s content, whether it’s a portrait or thematic piece or just some abstract flung paint or some flowers.