How to Stretch and Prepare a Large Canvas

I like to paint large canvases—it’s a nice change from the small sizes of my outdoor work. Painting in a larger format gives real power and presence to panoramic landscapes and is a lot of fun. This article is for those of you who would like to try your hand at a large canvas, but are uncertain how to proceed. After all, there is a much larger investment in materials and time in a large piece, and it would be wise to get started correctly.

Over the years I have painted enough large canvases to have discovered what works and what eventually fails. When I was just starting out, I used to build my own stretchers from lumberyard clear pine stock, carefully joining and bracing where I thought it would be needed. Invariably the wood would develop some waviness or out-of-square corners, making for problems all around. Eventually I switched to purchasing ready-made stretchers which saved time, but limited me to working in the sizes that were then available. Some custom-cut services were avai…