As an artist who likes to paint onto a hard surface, I find painting on stretched canvas a bit of an ick! I've always preferred pushing and scraping paint into a firm canvas. It's just a personal preference. But what to use? Tightening up the stretched canvas was not optimal and using thin canvas panels wouldn't work either.
I found my preferred option would be mounting my canvas onto a cradle board. These are sometimes called a cradle panel. Basically, they are a wooden panel, usually MDF or plywood, that sits on top of a wooden frame. The art can be painted onto the flat panel or a canvas sheet can be stuck on there.
Once the art is complete, the piece is ready to hang. The sides of the wooden frame are usually 4-5cm wide and usually made from pine. The artist can varnish or wax the wooden frame, or even paint it. You can also add a floating frame if you wanted.
I found a NZ company that makes their own from pine and ply or MDF and have created my newest series using them. There's nothing quite like peeling the paint tape off the sides and then waxing the clean wooden frame.
