Other Art Boards and Panels:
Unfinished "Art"
Boards and Plywood Panels
Primewood™ art panels are
tightly sealed and carefully primed archival
painting surfaces. By comparison, an unfinished,
unsealed, or unprimed "art" board can
hardly be considered an artist's panel at all.
Unfinished wood by its nature is unstable, and
certainly not archival in any sense. It
deteriorates from contact with moisture, light,
and even air itself. (Read about Deterioration
of Wood Panels.) Preparing wood
panels for artists use is a complex task, as
anyone who has tried it knows. And without
careful and proper preparation, even the best
wood materials will not hold up well over
extended time frames. Unfinished wooden boards
sold as art supplies are simply a convenient, if
expensive, way to buy cut-to-size lumber. Why pay
for elaborately braced MDF, hardboard, or plywood panels
which will then dry out from inadequate
preparation? If you want to prepare your own
panels, you can often get fine fiberboards and
plywood cut to size for you by making
arrangements with a local furniture maker or
cabinet shop. Read our wood
glossary to pick out the best wood, and
our tips on sealing
and preparing panels for information on
preparing your own.
"Half-finished" Gesso
Boards (face-primed only)
Art boards – or "bords"
– which are not well
sealed and finished on all surfaces (fronts,
backs, and edges) should not, in our opinion, be
considered archival quality panels. As noted
above and throughout our website, wood will
deteriorate if it is not tightly sealed. Sealed
edges are especially important, as vapor exchange
takes place mostly throught the edges of wood
panels of any kind. Some brands of art boards are
primed only on the face, with unsealed edges, and
backs which have been "sealed" only
with a thin coat of clear acrylic-latex varnish.
This acrylic sealant does not protect wood from
UV radiation, or stop moisture or lignin
transmission. (See our deterioration
of wood panels page to learn more about
this aspect of panel durability.) Face-primed
only panels are also considered
"unbalanced" panels. Without the same
treatment on both sides, panels are more likely
to "bow" due to uneven expansion and
contraction. Primewood™ panels are
primed on all surfaces. Are yours?
Masonite®/Hardboard-based
Art Panels
Compared to several other better
choices, hardboard (a.k.a. Masonite®) is not a good choice of materials for
art panels. Its extreme density and uniformly
aligned fiber structure give it an unfortunate
tendency toward warping. Its almost total
reliance on lignin to bind its fibers together
makes it especially vulnerable to decay. The
planar alignment of its fibers, as well as layers
of very short fibers (called "fines")
on its surfaces, makes it susceptible to
delamination. Tempered hardboard,
especially, provides very poor adhesion for
primers. Do art collectors a favor and use
something better! (Read more about hardboard, and
our superior fiberboards, in our wood
glossary.)
Acrylic-primed
Painting Panels
Primewood™ panels are made with
a revolutionary urethane-based art primer. By
comparison, panels primed with
acrylic gesso, acrylic-based "clay"
coatings, or water-based acrylic primers have
several shortcomings. The relatively high
permeability rates of these primers leave panels
open to off-gassing of lignin, a major factor
contributing to the deterioration of wood.
Moisture exchange through acrylic-latex leads to
expansion/contraction and cracking. Most acrylic
gessoes offer relatively weak adhesion for
subsequent paint layers, especially when they
have been sanded/polished to an extremely smooth
surface finish; this bodes poorly for long-term
durability. It also makes the panels feel
"slippery" and makes for poor paint
handling. Acrylic water-based primers also bond
weakly to wood, meaning that the possibility of
eventual primer separation from the wood is
higher than with stronger-bonding primers. For
more details, see our advanced
primers page.
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