Artist Grade Gamblin PVA Sizing

WOW. Do you need this product!

Did you know that the vast majority of pre-gessoed canvas and readymade stretched canvases are not sized? 

Canvas and linen need to be sized, and they need to be sized before stretching and any oil product goes on. Otherwise, oil will be able to contact the fabric and it will create rotting.  With oil ground, the contact would happen immediately if the fabric was not sized. With acrylic dispersion gesso ground, cracks and fissure form in the ground when stretched and bent around the edges of supports - if not sized, unseen cracks and fissures allow your oil paint to leach into the raw canvas or linen underneath, and create perfect conditions for eventual rotting.  These shocking and incredibly unpublicized facts will bring the demise of countless paintings from our era. Don't let your future work be part of this tragedy.

Sizing needs to be used as a preventive barrier to any and all oil paint applications to organic fabrics. Period. Before either you or a manufacture applies an acrylic or oil-based ground, IT MUST BE SIZED.

This Artist's Grade PVA by Gamblin is the best, leading technology product for sizing canvas or linen.

For sizing, do not substitute a PVA glue intended for carpentry. It is not formulated the same way.  Never use Rabbit Skin Glue for sizing on fabrics. Rabbit Skin Glue is the traditional sizing the Old Masters used, but it is hydroscopic and on fabrics will expand and contract with humidity fluctuations, creating long term surface instability. It has been replaced in modern practice by PVA which is completely stable.  Note: For plain rigid panels, Rabbit Skin Glue or PVA are both fine.

I am committed to helping you - my art community - to forge a path to sound surfaces for your very important work. This whole situation created by shoddy manufacturing is a wrong that must be righted. I offer to make you archivally perfect substrates on which to create your artwork, or would be equally happy to teach you how to do it yourself. My Cradled Canvas Panels (Canvas or Linen) and Canvas-Making Workshops, that teach you how to make the same thing, are available here through Professional Art Products.