Stretched Canvas 5 Pack - Blank White Triple Primed Cotton Artist Canvas

Description

This stretched canvas 5 pack gives you five blank white artist canvases made from 280gsm pure cotton, triple primed with acrylic gesso and ready to paint straight out of the wrapper. The pack is $95.99 at Lets Party. The canvas is acid free and takes oil, acrylic, watercolour and mixed media.

Buying canvas one at a time is how painting stays an occasional activity. The friction is not the price of a single canvas, it is the trip to buy one - and a blank canvas already in the cupboard is the difference between painting on a free Sunday and thinking about painting on a free Sunday. Five at once also lets you work in series, which is how most painters actually improve: the second attempt at the same subject is nearly always better than the first, and the fourth is better again.

Specifications

What's in the Box

Why Choose This Canvas Pack

• Triple primed - three coats of acrylic gesso mean the surface is sealed properly, so paint sits on the canvas instead of soaking into the weave.
• 280gsm cotton - a mid-weight canvas, heavy enough to take a loaded brush and a palette knife without the surface drumming under pressure.
• Acid free - the substrate will not yellow and embrittle the way acidic board does, which matters if the painting is meant to last.
• Five at once - enough to work a subject in series, or to have spares for a class, without reordering between paintings.
• Ready to paint - no additional priming needed, so you can open the pack and start.

What Does Triple Gesso Primed Mean?

Gesso is a white primer that seals raw canvas and gives paint something to grip. Raw cotton is absorbent - paint applied straight onto it soaks in, goes dull, and in the case of oil paint the linseed oil eventually rots the fibres from the inside. Priming stops all of that. "Triple primed" means three coats rather than one, and the practical difference is surface. One coat leaves the canvas weave clearly textured and still slightly thirsty; three coats fill the weave more, giving a smoother, less absorbent surface that keeps colours looking as bright dry as they did wet. It also means you can paint straight onto it without adding your own gesso first, which saves a day of drying time.

Can You Use Watercolour on a Primed Canvas?

You can, but it behaves quite differently to watercolour paper and it is worth knowing that before you start. Gesso is not absorbent, so watercolour sits on the surface and beads rather than sinking in, which means it stays movable much longer and dries with harder edges. Some painters use exactly that for effect - lifting and reworking colour in a way paper will not allow. If you want traditional watercolour behaviour you want watercolour paper or a canvas prepared with watercolour ground instead. Acrylic and oil are what a triple-primed cotton canvas is really built for.

Is 280gsm Cotton Canvas Heavy Enough for Oils?

Yes, for normal studio painting. 280gsm sits in the middle of the range - lighter than heavy-duty linen used for large commissioned work, heavier than the thin canvas on budget school packs. For paintings up to moderate size, and for oil, acrylic and impasto work with a palette knife, it is entirely adequate. Where weight starts to matter is scale: a very large canvas on lightweight fabric can develop slack over time and need re-tensioning. Cotton is also the standard student and mid-range choice for good reason - it takes gesso well and costs a fraction of linen, and the difference between the two only becomes visible at a professional level.

Buyers are typically hobby painters restocking, art students who go through canvas quickly, teachers and community art groups buying for a class, and people taking up painting who want enough surface to practise on rather than one precious canvas they are afraid to start.

Our 5 piece stainless steel palette knife set pairs directly with these for impasto work, and our Craft and Sewing range covers the rest of the studio.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size are the canvases?
We are not going to state a size we cannot verify. The supplier's specification sheet for this pack does not give dimensions, and guessing at them on a $95.99 product would be worse than admitting it. Message us before ordering and we will confirm the exact dimensions with the supplier - we are chasing this and will publish it here as soon as we have it in writing.

Are these stretched canvases or canvas boards?
Stretched - canvas over a wooden frame, which is what the pack is sold as and what the size and shipping arrangements indicate. One line in the supplier's own copy described them as mounted on board, which contradicts the rest of the sheet. We have removed that line and asked them to confirm in writing.

Do I need to prime them first?
No. They come triple primed with acrylic gesso and are ready to paint.

Can I use them for acrylic pouring?
Yes. A sealed gesso surface is well suited to pouring, though you will want to protect the frame edges and work on a level surface.

Is hanging hardware included?
No. You get the canvases only.

Are they suitable for children?
Yes, they are just primed cotton. Normal supervision applies for the paints rather than the canvas.

Will the canvas yellow over time?
The canvas is acid free, which is the property that prevents yellowing and embrittlement of the substrate itself. How the finished painting ages depends mostly on your paints and varnish.

Fast Australian Shipping

We dispatch from within Australia, so orders reach Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin without the long waits that come with ordering bulky items from overseas. Because canvases are large and light, this pack ships by courier rather than standard post, so a street address is needed - a PO box will not work for this item.

Fabric weight, priming and archival properties are as supplied by the manufacturer. Canvas dimensions have not been provided to us and are deliberately not stated here rather than estimated. Please contact us for exact sizes before ordering.