Rio Tavares, meadowland

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Rio Tavares, meadowland, oil on card, 11 x 15.5 cm - available

An underappreciated aspect of painting is surface: especially the surfaces of supports- canvases, card, wood, glass or aluminium, each of which bring specific qualities and meanings to a painting. I paint on card which is primed first with linseed oil-heavy paint, then coated with a lighter later of thinned paint which dries with a brittle surface that ensures a good tooth.

I will re-use these cards when the pictures painted on them are unsatisfactory, and the process of re-priming them lends them distinctive qualities. These qualities affect enormously the final piece: they are the point of departure. Some of the cards are brilliant white- good for very bright sunny days, Others are slightly toned down with various greys, light ochres and yellows. 

One can, of course, cover the whole card at the outset of a picture, and, Renaissance-style, construct picture from layers, thereby obliterating and sense of the underlying surface.  But I think more fun is to use the  particular texture and colour of  a card as a compositional element in itself- much as Chinese,watercolourists, and woodcut printmakers do with paper.

A double carrier with two card supports. 

They are glued to masking tape. 
To remove card simply pull the masking tape tags. 

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