Linen, Ground and Why the Surface Decides Everything

Everything I make is oil on linen, and the linen is not a technicality. Change it and the paintings become different paintings.

Linen Moves Less

Cotton duck is cheaper, more available and expands and contracts noticeably with humidity. On a painting worked over nine months in a building with no climate control, that movement shows up as a slack corner and a cracked passage. Linen is far more stable, and for slow work that stability is the whole argument.

The Ground Sets the Speed

An absorbent ground pulls the oil out of the paint and dries it fast, which suits direct work. A smoother, less absorbent ground keeps paint workable for days. I use the second, because most of what I do happens on the second and third day when the layer beneath is still just soft enough to disturb.

Weave Is a Decision, Not a Default

Fine weave for interiors, where the drawing has to hold. Coarser for the harbour paintings, where the texture does some of the work of describing rusted metal and the grain showing through is the point.

What This Means for a Buyer

Very little, honestly, except that these paintings want a stable wall rather than one above a radiator or in direct sun. Both are worse for the work than anything else you are likely to do to it.