The Framers Forum

I have an oil on unstretched canvas to frame, about 40cm square, but there is now spare canvas to stretch it on bars, any ideas on how to frame it would be great.

These are always tricky and it never ceases to amaze me why artists don't think forward to displaying their work.

I have done this two ways previously. First is to stretch it flat (I have put them in the hot press to get them flat) and then tape it into a mount, but my preferred way is to drymount it, but you need the owners permission to do this.

once drymounted then its to frame like any other piece

It looks like it was originally stretched but has been hacked about a bit.

The 'correct' thing to do is get it relined i.e. stick it to a piece of new, bigger canvas and stretch that. The process will
also reinforce the painting if the original canvas is a bit dried out and brittle. This is a specialist job though so it's best
farmed out to a restorer.

The 'convenient' way is the stick it to a stout board. Bit of 9mm MDF or such. You can do this with diluted PVA (Unibond?)
The trick is to sandwich it between two thick boards (3/4" chipboard serves well) with release paper and a
foam blanket on to of the painting. Pile as much weight as you can on it and leave it overnight or longer.
Heat mounting is not a good idea as you cannot tell how the heat will affect the paint.

Once dry, seal the back of the board with the same PVA.

Thanks for the quick replies.

I cannot have too much of a go at the artist as it happens to be my wife! I have framed one other of her "sketches" on a canvas off cut, which is what this is, by using the platform mount technique but that piece was a bit smaller. It is not desperate for it to be completely flat as it is what it is, last time having platform mounted the piece I put a float mount over the top which kept it a good distance from the glass.

I think she has a reject that I could try dry mounting as I quite like the idea of it floating on a board centre frame.

A full lining of the painting or strip-lining is the way to go. Strip-lining is the practice of adding strips of fabric along the edges of the painting wide enough to attach to the painting plus enough for the stretching process, usually 60-100mm. The traditional adhesive was lining wax, a combination of wax and rosin, today PVA products are used (fabric adhesive or Beva®).

Re-lining is the correct method, but if float mounting desired finish, then you could make thin stretchers (1/2 inch would do) and stretch onto these. You may need a tiny bit on the back but you can get away with small loss. Then float mounting it is easy as you can screw into stretchers and with a deepish box frame, you will see the sides of painting so have only lost bit on the back.

Nick