Disaster or Blessing? Problems With Gesso.

Cracks.

I went into my studio to find everything had gone wrong. The gesso that I had poured on this canvas cracked, and my first thought was “oh crap!”

Cracks.

I thought about what had gone wrong. I’ve used this technique before but only on board, and it worked well on board. Maybe the canvas shrunk and caused the cracks?

Covering

I decided to continue working on it. I painted the gesso with acrylic, and I worked the paint down into the cracks. That didn’t fix it, which was not really a surprise.

Chipping away

After the paint had dried I chipped away all the loose gesso, but I left some areas that were well attached but still had cracks.

Covering.

After I chipped away all the problem areas I painted another coat of acrylic paint over the gesso. What at first seemed like a complete mess might actually be working out fine. I’ve decided I like the broken surface that I now have, and that it works better as a translation of one of my Long Series paintings.