Tutorial: mounting small textiles on a gallery wrapped canvas pt 1

The small embroideries I’ve made for my solo show, Sone, Water, Time, are lovely little pieces of art. But most of the general public doesn’t have a lot of experience with textiles as fine art so they might just think, “we’ll thats a fancy potholder” when they see them. 

I love to present small works like these in a way that every viewer can immediately understand as “Art.” Sometimes that means framing. For these pieces I’ve chosen to mount them on 2” deep gallery wrapped canvases. It beings the work itself to the front, rather than being protected and surrounded by a frame.

I also like to make the canvas into an integral part of the artwork. In this case I’ve used thermofax screens with mill wheels and printed those images with light molding paste onto the canvases. It’s almost invisible until you start adding in some paint. I’m going for a very subtle textural background that will support rather than compete with the embroideries.

You can make these background textures as strong or as subtle as you’d like. I love layers of subtle texture  that allows the viewer to discover more and more visual interest as they spend time with the work.

You will find that the paint sinks into the more absorbent molding paste images. My daughter walked in at this point and said, “it looks like you rubbed dirt into them,” which was exactly what I was going for.

In the nest post I will show you how to mount the textiles onto the canvases.

Please mark your calendars and join me for the opening reception of Stone, Water, Time at the Cary Art Center. July 26th, 6-8pm.