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As an avid and professional painter, I have experience painting on many different surfaces. When Gerstaecker asked me to try out their PET RECYCLED canvas, my interest was immediately aroused – I had never worked on it before!
I used Old Holland’s NEW MASTER acrylic paint and Gerstaecker’s MASTER brushes – both of which have been on my must-try list for a long time. All in all, an interesting material survey.
Just a few days after my order, two 60 cm x 80 cm canvases and two 30 cm x 40 cm canvases were delivered together with the paints and brushes, and I could start testing and trying out the materials.
I hereby give a brief report of my findings on the canvas, paints and brushes, which I started working with in my familiar way.
➽ And on-the-go, I am so happy to show you my way of working too!
This professional painting canvas is made 100% from recycled plastic PET bottles – an eco-friendly alternative to traditional painting cloths!
GERSTAECKER – RECYCLED PET painter’s canvas – universally primed
It is triple universally primed. So you can work on it with oil colours, some temperas and acrylics. It is as supple as a cotton or linen canvas, only a bit heavier: 420 g/m².
TIP! Each label shows how many recycled bottles have been used.
GERSTAECKER | MASTER 1091 brush ○ round – synthetic hair
GERSTAECKER | MASTER 1090 brush ○ flat – synthetic hair
GERSTAECKER | MASTER 1092 brush ○ cat’s tongue – synthetic hair
GERSTAECKER | Spalter – hog bristle
Old Holland | NEW MASTERS acrylic paint
Old Holland | NEW MASTERS acrylic medium
➽ Want to read more about my experiences with these materials?
Then read this REVIEW, in which I share my first impression with you!
BREAKPOINT- study Crowd paintings series
I decide to use an 80 cm x 60 cm canvas for an exploratory study with acrylic paint in my Crowd paintings series – and I call that study BREAKPOINT.
In this thematic series, I always paint a crowd of people that is recognisable as a mob from a distance, but breaks down into expressive painterly touches, each with its own abstract quality, when seen up close due to the impressionist painting style.
So, I am just going to do my own thing to see if I will notice any difference in the effect of the canvas, paint and brushes!
First, I apply a base colour – in this case phthalo blue. A little paint thinned with some water and acrylic medium is enough. I rub away the excess with a rag. It may be a bit smudgy, that works even better!
Applying such a base layer – also called an imprimatura – allows me to apply both dark and light tones directly in my painting – so I am not bound by a build-up from dark to light.
Also, I am not visually distracted by the bright white of the canvas and can directly determine my lightest tones. In addition, the base colour helps to achieve harmony across the entire canvas and it is also not necessarily necessary to have to paint every piece of the canvas in a moment, and the underlay fills in the untouched areas automatically.
Finally, the chosen colour will also produce an effect, as it gives the colours that are put over it a different look. For example, a red placed on a white surface looks different from a red placed on purple.
01 – First I apply an imprimatura with a diluted blue – 679 Phthalo blue.
02 – On that ground, I start my set-up with a mix of that same blue and crimson – 652 Alizarin crimson extra – after which I apply red areas a bright red – 645 Cadmium red medium.
I find it interesting to set up my works differently each time – it challenges me and inspires me to work intuitively.
03 – The red gives a huge contrast and really pops off the canvas. It immediately shows very clearly how the composition will form.
04 – This huge colour contrast gives a strong visual effect that I will continue by applying more bright red, pink, magenta and white tones.
Once I have applied these shades, I will start correcting and trimming shapes with darker areas and lines – a mixture of the crimson, blue and black – 735 Ivory black extra.
TIP! Making your own dark mixture with black and various colours will give the dark tones much more colour strength and depth than just using pure black. It will also create more harmony with the colours already applied to the canvas.
05 – Having applied the red, I now make blends on my palette in shades of pink and magenta, to which I also add the iridescent purple – 809 iridescent purple. The blends partly take over the iridescent properties, but the more I add other colours, the more this does disappear of course.
I continue to work on my design and add more and more mixed colours. I set large areas with the spalter, smaller areas with the MASTER brushes.
06 – After letting the paint dry, I now apply transparent parts over all the blue of the underlay that is still visible. I made the transparent red with the crimson, which I mixed heavily with an acrylic medium. Because of the transparency of the paint, everything under this layer is still visible, only now everything takes on a monochrome red colour. This transparent layer – called a glazing layer – connects separate parts and also provides a depth effect.
07 – Then I elaborate the study by applying several colours like green and yellow and various mixing colours.
TIP! On my brush there are often several colours at once and they mix the moment I touch the canvas – so I also just mix on the canvas instead of just on my palette. I like the way the colours mix very organically this way and it prevents every touch from being a pure, monotonous colour.
Again – from a distance – the illusion of a crowd of people slowly emerges on the canvas, while it is painted very coarsely and suggestively.
In itself, I could work on this much further, but for a study and the purpose of this exercise and material test, I will leave the canvas for now.
TIP! An elaboration of this image, but as part of a diptych on large canvases can be seen in the work Breakpoint, where the oil paint is applied thickly and with impasto.
Overall, the outcome of this material research is very positive.
➽ I am pleasantly surprised by the PET RECYCLED cloth. A good, stable surface that works well and is made of recycled material – highly recommended!
➽ The NEW MASTERS acrylic paint is of very nice quality with really beautiful, highly pigmented colours that give almost no colour shift when drying. I also find it interesting that the paint has some of the character of oil paints.
➽ I was also impressed by the quality of the MASTER brushes which give good control, absorb and release the paint well and also show a nice snap & jump and flexibility of the bristles.
Thank you Gerstaecker for asking me to test these materials!
About Robert
Robert is a professional artist living and working in Rotterdam. He has a track record of murals, studio paintings & portraits.
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Besides his painting practice, he has extensive experience in transferring knowledge about painting materials and techniques. For instance, he taught at the Willem de Kooning academy in Rotterdam and set up The Fine Art Collective in the Netherlands, with which he supported many academies and art students for years with clinics and projects on the use of materials in cooperation with museums and professional artists.
He still develops many activities related to education and training, but now more focused on artists, teachers and corporate staff. With his great passion for painting, he has dealt with many topics and themes, but lately he has been focusing mainly on the theme of Crowd painting.
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