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2006 Ann Martin Garland
Italian panel paintings are among the earliest examples of painting on wood. Around
1390, the Italian painter Cennino Cennini (ca. 1370–ca. 1440) explained the process in Il
Libro dell'arte, describing in detail the steps involved in creating a painting from a poplar
plank. This process employed the application of several layers of gesso.
My favorite examples of the integration of wood grain in oil paintings are Edgar Degas's
Before the Race, (ca.1882-4) and Jean Puy's Etude de Nu (ca. 1912). In Before the Race,
the grain of the wood is clearly visible in the foreground grass, and in the horses' bodies. In
Etude de Nu, the color and pattern of the wood grain becomes the skin tone of the nude.
I first began painting on wood after a hurricane
damaged my home in Florida. I retrieved some
primed paneling that was being used in the kitchen
repair and painted a triptych in oils that reflected my
longing for California. I liked the smooth, hard surface
of the primed wood. I then painted a landscape on
an old varnished cabinet door. I liked the varnished
wood even better than the primed wood surface.
I began to paint on wood exclusively. The paintings are on birch plywood. I wanted to use
a common material in an uncommon way, plus I couldn’t justify using a rare wood. I stain
the wood and seal it with a coat of polyurethane, then leave a border of stained wood to
create a mat. The grain and color of the wood create a kind of underpainting. At times I
apply the oils as if they were watercolors, using a thin coat to allow the pattern of the wood
to show through and become part of the painting.
I've painted on a variety of wood surfaces, from a
screen with masonite sections to a mahogany-
veneered front panel of an upright piano.
