Kathryn's animal portraits are painted on professionally stretched 10 oz cotton canvas with pine stretcher bars. Standard portraits use the traditional 7/8" deep stretcher bars, but you can request the thicker gallery profile (1.5") canvas at an additional charge.
The canvas is stretched around the edges of the stretcher bars, so the portrait can be displayed without a frame. The edges of your portrait will be painted to match the painting, so you can hang the canvas directly on the wall.
Most portraits are painted on spline-fitted canvas, because it has a smooth, fitted appearance at the back. The edges of the canvas cloth are stapled at the back, and tucked behind a fitted rubber strip.
Kathryn uses the Golden line of professional acrylic paints, which are made in the USA. Professional quality paints have a high pigment strength and are very lightfast, so your portrait will last for many years.
Unlike oil paints, acrylic paints are safe, resilient and non-toxic. Acrylics are more ecologically sound, because they don't require the use of toxic solvents. Acrylic paints dry quickly to a hard, permanent finish that is durable and looks like oil paint, but is safe and clean to work with.
When acrylic paints were first developed in the 1940s, the selection of colors and workability was limited. Now, acrylics are available with all the same pigments found in oil paints--the only difference is the transparent binding medium. Paintings made with modern acrylic paints are difficult to distinguish from oil paintings, and more and more professional artists are switching to this medium.
All portraits come gift wrapped, with an information sheet on painting care and cleaning.
