Against the Grain. Why I never paint on Canvas.

Over a coffee today, someone asked why I paint on wood panels rather than on canvas.

Well… canvas bounces, yields, and absorbs the impact. It politely negotiates with paints and textures. I want a surface that fights back.

Wood withstands scratching down to the bare grain, it tolerates revealing the chaotic multi-layers of paint, and it sustains the carving marks that add harsh texture when I paint back over them.

So I’m not just laying paint down. I’m having a real dialogue with a surface that doesn’t give way under pressure. It holds tension until something holds and reveals itself.

That resistance? That’s the whole point of the process.