Gessos & Primers

Going gung-ho on a painting without a coating of gesso or primer is never a good idea!  The paint may not stick to the painting surface properly resulting in the paint peeling off just when you don’t want it to, or if oil seeps into raw canvas it can sometimes cause the canvas to rot over time.  This can often result in an unhappy painter!

This is why gessos and primers are around; to help you safely prime your painting surface so that the paint adheres well and does not cause any deterioration to the surface.

There are a number of gessos and primers available including regular acrylic gesso primer which is perfect for oils, alkyd and acrylic and dries to a matt white surface, oil painting primer which is made with a special alkyd resin designed especially for acting as a ground for oil colour, clear and tinted acrylic gesso primers, rabbit skin glue and loads more to whack on before your painting begins.