How a Large Format Painting Is Built: Plaster, Cold Wax and Concrete

Every large format painting I make starts as a panel. Most are birchboard because it stays rigid. Cold wax paint needs a rigid support, since it does not flex the way paint does on stretched canvas.

Next comes the plaster. This is the fresco secco underpainting. Plaster takes pigment differently than gesso and gives the surface a stone like depth.

Then the layers begin. I mix Gamblin cold wax medium with oil color, mica and pigment. I scrape, press and build the paint with knives. Each layer adds color and raised texture, and the surface shifts as you move past it.

Lately I have been covering the plaster with concrete. It changes the weight and texture of the surface, and the color sits differently on it.

Cold wax is naturally UV resistant and needs no varnish. A few paintings get a coat of Gamblin UV Matte for extra protection.

Finished edges are part of the work. Each painting is gallery wrapped. The back is sanded and sealed to protect your walls, and the piece is wrapped in soft archival canvas. It arrives ready to hang.

See current originals on the New Works page at caitjewell.com/art.