Gallery Wrapped Watercolors! Who Knew?

Did you know you can wrap watercolor paper over a canvas stretched on wooden stretcher bars?  Well, maybe you did, but I had no idea.  I'm so excited to feature these instructions by watercolor artist, Charlene McGill.  She has been generous enough to share her technique here.  

One of McGill's wrapped paintings, 'Poppy' 

How to Wrap Paper over a Primed Canvas Stretcher

McGill: This process can be fun and rewarding as an alternative to matting and framing your watercolour paintings. 

I prefer to use inexpensive primed cotton canvases.  These can be purchased at all Art Stores, Craft Stores and even Department Stores.  Buying the cheaper brands can be a little risky, because the stretcher bars may warp.

The process seems to work very successfully with 140# paper.  You can certainly use hot press which is very smooth, cold pressed which has a little bit of tooth, or rough which has a lot of tooth.  Arches is good, strong paper and that’s what I’ve used in this demonstration.  I’ll be stretching this paper over 8" x 10" canvas.

 Steps:

 Protect your work surface with a plastic cover and clean towels which will absorb any excess water.

Carefully measure your paper to ensure that you’ll be able to fold the edges over the stretcher bars and onto the back of each of the bars.  Remember that your paper must cover FOUR sides! The depth of the canvas is an important measurement because the deeper sides of Gallery Wrap vs. Regular Canvas will make a difference in the size of the paper.

For smaller sized paper, you can fill your kitchen sink with tepid water.  If you decide to stretch larger pieces of paper, the bathtub is a good place to do that.

Lay your cut piece of paper in the water and allow it to soak for only a few minutes.  It just needs to be good and pliable.  Drain the excess water from it before taking it to your work surface.Soaking your paper too long could result in washing away some of the sizing.

Set your paper on the clean towels and then centre your canvas on it.

This is the “nerve wracking” part.  Firmly grasp the edge of the paper and pull it over the long edge of the stretcher.  Immediately staple it.  Turn the work and firmly pull the other side, stapling it to secure it on the stretcher.

As if you were wrapping a gift, fold down the corner edge on the short side.  Hold the fold with your thumb while pressing the excess paper onto the stretcher with your forefinger.  It’s not as complicated as it sounds.

 Once pressed, the paper will hold its shape so you can crease the corner before stapling it.

 Staple that first crease you’ve made.

I practiced this fold using a thin piece of printer paper until I was satisfied that I could make nice tight corners.  It’s purely an aesthetic reason for being so careful, but I feel that it really makes a difference in your finished product.

Now, firmly pull up the short side of your paper over that stapled crease and staple the paper in the centre while holding down the corner.  It will appear that you have TWO folds.  Staple the crease.

Your finished corner will now be held firmly and appear to be nice and flat.  Add more staples as necessary to firmly hold you paper in place.

This process is very similar to reupholstering a seat cushion!

Here’s another corner detail. From the side, you can see how neat your fold appears.

  

It’s the smooth, sharply creased corner that I mentioned before where I believe it’s important to practice before you fold your watercolour paper.

Remembering that you must continue to work quickly.  You don’t want your paper to dry out.

If it does begin to feel too dry, spritz it with clean water using a spray bottle that you keep with your palette to reactivate your pigment.

Finish stapling the other short side and then, finally complete the long sides.

The front of your gallery wrapped canvas will look exactly like a regular primed canvas, except that it’s watercolor paper!

Me:  It's genius.  I am so excited to try this out.  Be sure to join me again tomorrow to see how McGill finishes these paintings.  It'll blow your mind!  We can hang watercolor paintings without glass and even without frames and Charlene McGill will show us how.  Thanks for stopping by!  Alice