Revised August 21, 2014
Year ago I studied painting with William Reese, now deceased. Many of the small painting that he created, four of which I own, were painted on museum board. Museum board is lightweight and versatile. As far as I know it is all cotton. For outdoor painting, especially where weight and thickness are an issue, I find it to be a wonderful painting surface.
1. I use 4-ply all cotton rag museum board. The brand I buy is called "Risings." You need to make sure it is cotton and not just a refined paper because cotton, if you prepare it correctly, does not warp. The type of ground came from Carolyn Anderson (she uses masonite panels).
2. I buy 32 x 40" pieces of Risings 4-ply all cotton rag museum board. I use to purchase from http://www.talasonline.com, but shipping is too expensive now so I buy from Daniel Smith in Seattle which is within driving distance to me. There are probably many places to buy Risings museum board so just do a Google search on “Risings museum board.” At one point I tried another brand of museum board and discovered it only had one good side, so when applying the PVA size, the wet surface was raised.
3. I usually buy a box of 25 sheets of 32 x 40” 4-ply Risings Museum Board—it brings the price down a little. But you might want to try just a couple of pieces to decide if you like this type of board.
4. I place the 32 x 40” sheets on a 31 x 39” platform of ½ inch plywood. This is to keep the edges clean.
5. I apply one layer of Gamblin PVA Size to both sides. Do one side, let it dry, do the other side. This prevents warping. Apply with a big house paint brush. It shouldn't be thick, just needs to cover all areas. Make sure there are no bubbles. I usually prepare 5-8 32” x 40” boards at one time. I basically go over it with the big brush just one time by quarters of the board—it can overlap and it dries quickly.
6. I have at least four 40 x 60 pieces of foam core that I put on top of tables and other furniture. I can place two of the 32 x 40 sheets on each piece of foam core to dry. The large foam core drying platforms make it easier to do several sheets at one time without having to clear a lot of space in the studio.
7. Using a white foam paint roller (Home Depot Ultra Smooth High Density Foam approximately 6”), apply three coats of Liquitex Basic Gesso to just one side of the board. Let it dry in between coats. Make sure each coat is as smooth as possible with the roller. By the third coat, it should have a slightly rough texture, but not bumpy.
8. Sometimes I lightly sand with an electric sander at this point and then apply a wash of about 3-4 value (1 being white) using a blue-black (pthalo blue and black) wash in Gamsol. The color of the wash is a personal choice.
9. There are two kinds of Liquitex Gesso--Basic and Pro. The Basic has an absorbent finish and I prefer this. You can usually buy Liqutex Basic at Michaels. The Pro has a much more non-absorbent surface--very slick. It depends on what you like to paint on. I've sometimes mixed the two for a slightly less absorbent ground, but still prefer a more absorbent ground than the slick surface of the Liquitex Pro. There are many other brands of gesso and I have tried some but still like the Liquitex Basic the best. It is sometimes really thick and I may add a little water to it.
10. If you don't like the slightly rough surface using the white foam roller, you can use a large house painting brush for a different texture. On one of the paintings I bought from Bill Reese which is 9 x 9” he obviously used a brush to apply the gesso.
11. When the surface is dry, cut to size with a mat cutter or utility knife. I have a Logan mat cutter—I think it is a 650. I don't do anything to the edges after cutting the pieces. Since there is a small margin of board that is not painted on at the edges because of taping it to foam core for the painting process, this has never been an issue.
12. Tape museum board to a slightly bigger piece of foam core for painting using regular masking tape. I usually tape only about 1/8 Inch. I have an Open Box M palette with the spring loaded panel holder. Because of this, I put a slice of duct tape on the edges of the foam core. They last longer that way.
13. I like using the museum board for travel because I can get two boards back-to-back into a dry box and they are stiff enough to stay put. It is both inexpensive and archival (as far as I know).
14. As I said, I learned about using museum board from William Reese. I don't guarantee anything about it, but he obviously used it a lot for his small outdoor pieces. One of the pieces I bought from him is on 4 ply museum board with just a foam core backing, not glued to the museum board. This is also how I frame paintings that are on museum board, with a foam core backing not glued to the panel. For small panels (up to 12 x 16 and maybe bigger) this is not a problem—the museum board is sturdy.
15. I have also taken museum board down to my local framer and had them dry mount a lightweight prepared linen canvas to the board. The one problem I had with this is that I applied the PVA Size to the non canvas side after the dry mount and this caused an unacceptable warping of the board. So I didn’t size after that and I didn’t experiment with putting the size on both sides of the board before dry mounting the canvas—but you could experiment with it. I have a friend who glues canvas to some kind of paper board but I’m not sure what kind of board she uses.
16. When I travel, I usually take Raymar boxes that I’ve retrofitted because the separators are too narrow for storing the paintings. If, for example, I take only 8 x 10, 10 x 10 and 10 x 12 museum board panels, then I would take a 11 x 14 inch Raymar box and cut all the foam core panels that I tape the museum board onto to 111 x 14. This way I can go out for the day and do four paintings of different sizes and carry only one wet box with me for the day. This involves all sorts of complexities with the sizes of the panels, how lightweight you need to travel, how many panels you bring, the sizes and how quickly they dry, as well as making the separators in the Raymar box at least ¼ inch rather than 1/8 inch.
17. To retrofit a Raymar box for museum board panels, the key is to create a wider divider. To do this, use 1/4 x 1/8 inch molding (or firring strips) cut to the correct length and glue them to the plastic dividers in the box.
18. Just take enough foam core panels for the day—not one for every panel. I tape the panels to the foam core using 1/2 inch masking which I get at Ace Hardware. When you get back from the day’s painting remove the finished panels from the foam core and put in dry boxes.
19. Since museum board is not completely rigid, painting on a museum board panel requires a rigid backing for the panel. I tape it to a foam core panel as follows:
Good luck!
