Technical Information


Painting Supports


Dan Anaka prefers to work mainly on the two following painting supports.  Dan is willing and capable of painting on many different types of supports and grounds.  He welcomes any inquiries, and suggestions.  


Stretched Cotton Canvas

Flexible Support

  • The use of cotton canvas has had a wide spread popularity since the 1930’s
  • Dan Anaka uses high quality, 10 – 12 ounce cotton canvas
  • Considered a conventional, suitable, flexible, permanent painting support 
  • The canvas is hand stretched onto a handmade, museum quality 1 5/8 inch deep stretcher frame
  • All sizes are customizable to the art collectors needs
  • The stretcher frame’s edges and corners are sanded and rounded. This reduces the stress around the edges of the stretched canvas, thus increasing the quality of the painting
  • The process helps eliminate cracking, distortion and tearing as the painting ages
  • The stretched canvas is than stapled or nailed, not to the sides, but to the back of the stretcher frame
  • This creates a clean aesthetic appearance; with the sides painted, there is no need for framing
  • Framing wire is fastened on the inside of the stretcher frame, allowing the finished painting to be flush to the wall when hung
  • The stretched canvas is coated with 4 – 8 coats of artist quality acrylic gesso

Dan Anaka feels that stretched canvas is best suited for his acrylic paintings. He does not recommend the use of oil paint, and egg tempera on this flexible support. These painting mediums are not flexible. The support will contribute to cracking, and flaking of the paint in the future. He is able to stiffen the canvas support, using specialized mediums, making it a more suitable rigid support for those types of paints. With his belief in quality, he only uses a flexible support for his acrylic paintings.

Seasoned Wood Panel

Rigid Support

  • Dan Anaka uses high quality 3 - 5 ply, seasoned wooden panels
  • They are a conventional, suitable, rigid, permanent painting support
  • The panels are handmade, and are of a museum quality measuring 1 5/8 inches deep
  • All sizes are customizable to the art collectors needs
  • The corners and edges are sanded and rounded
  • With the sides painted, there is no need for framing
  • Framing wire is fastened on the inside of the stretcher frame, allowing the finished painting to be flush to the wall when hung
  • The Wooden Panel is coated with 4 – 8 coats of artist quality acrylic gesso

The main advantage of using a rigid wood support is that it has no strain, giving it excellent dimensional stability and durability. This reduces the risk of cracking, and shrinking in the painted layers. This type of support is suitable for his Oil, Egg Tempera, or Acrylics paintings. The disadvantage of this type of support is that it tends to be heavier than it’s stretched canvas counterpart.

Artist's Materials

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