Painting Supports
These are not the easels or frames but are the surfaces upon which the paints are applied.
The earliest supports, as mentioned above, were cave walls. This moved to plastered walls, wooden altarpieces, coffins, wedding chests, cloth banners and books. Of late, parchment, paper, metal and plastic are all used as supports when we remember the air brush effects produced on custom cars and motorcyclists' crash helmets.
Fabric is a current popular support being inexpensive, light, easily located and available in any size. It is readily stretched across a wooden frame and is then quite rigid. The first fabrics were made from linen with cotton and jute taking over.
Paper is of course a popular support for smaller works of art being used continuously from ancient times. Some 5000 years ago the Egyptians painted on paper produced from Papyrus leaves. Pre 100 AD the Chinese used paper made from the bark of the bamboo and mulberry trees.
Around 800AD European artists worked on paper made from linen and cotton rags.
Metal supports can be difficult bases and tend to be used by specialist artists, as it can be difficult to avoid cracking of the dried paint film as the support flexes. Aluminium, copper and iron are the metals commonly used.
Painting Grounds
Many supports require pre-treatment with a ground before paint should be applied. These materials reduce absorption of the paint, can increase the brightness of the dried paint and retain this brightness and reduce the roughness of the support.
Grounds are usually white with a small percentage being tinted. Materials used are acrylic gesso, glue gesso and oil primers.