We all see large paintings and think how wonderful it would be to paint BIG but it doesn't happen easily. One of the first issues to tackle is how to support your substrate to be able to put paint onto it. I've had a hankering for a while now to go bigger but needed to work out just how to go about it.
My biggest canvas to date has been 1 metre square and I could mange it on my easel quite well. I'd purchased a canvas that was 1.5 metres wide but because the sides had no support behind them when it was on my easel the canvas would move when I painted either side, despite it being clamped down at the top.
I'd seen what looked to be a great system where a grid of nails had been hammered into the wall. The nails provided the support for a cradled canvas or board to be hung. My husband wasn't keen to have this system on my studio walls (and thats fair enough I guess) so my going bigger goal had been put on the back burner.
Recently I came up with my mobile painting wall design, rather like an extra wide easel with the added benefit of being dual sided.
I drew what I thought would work on paper with measurements so that it would fit along the 2 metres of vacant wall in my studio. The walls are made of marine ply so that they will stand up to moisture. One side has a peg board system where I have short pieces of dowel for pegs. These can be moved around to whichever holes to suit the cradled canvas. Batons going across inside the wall provide extra strength to the wall itself and extra thickness for the pegs to go into. The other side is just plain marine ply so that I can tape large sheets of paper or clamp unstretched canvas. The castors on the feet means the wall can be easily turned around and then locked into place.
Ive been using the wall easel for both paper and cradled boards and really love working completely vertical. Looking forward to painting bigger!
Looking forward to seeing the results of the new mobile painting wall!