Painting Panels, and Three in a Marsh daily painting by Everglades Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

 

Three in a Marsh, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x7"

 

Today's daily painting, Three in a Marsh, like many of my newer dailies, is done on  a gessoboard panel.  I started using them for my Snowmen paintings, wanting them to be a little different than my Everglades dailies.  Now I'm beginning to uncover their strengths and really starting to like them. 

 

At first they seemed a little too slick since I usually like more tooth in the canvas.  Since I don't paint them a warm dark like the rest of my canvases, more light is reflected up from the layers below rather than being installed into the painting.  I'm working with the light instead of toward the light. 

 

If I begin with the more transparent pigments it's easier to layer in the light source.  The more opaque colors over the transparents give a nice glow from beneath, and seem quite rich. 

 

Raymar panels, canvas on board, also work very well for daily paintings. They are very light and easy to use.  Both of these substrates work much better for me than a stretched canvas for small work, and are of archival quality.  What's your preference?