I have an old canvas painting, could I reuse the canvas and paint over it?

Question

It's an old seventies style painting and would like to paint over it, becasue it has a good frame and canvases are expensive. Is there a way I could reuse it and paint over it?

I know it is not a famous painting, I bought it at goodwill and it looks very amature. It is very large! So buying a canvas that large is expensive.

Answer 1

yes.
sometimes, if the paint is layered too much,
you can sand it a little with fine sand paper,
not rough sand paper, since you wouldn't want to rip the canvas..
....doing this will make it smooth enough to gesso over it in order to re-use...


hope this helps :)













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Answer 2

Yes you can. If the painting is done with oils take a sand paper and san it down so it’s not bumpy and also to take some of the paint off. The next thing you need to do is gesso(white paint primer for canvases) the canvas let art gesso dry and you are ready to go. However, bad thing about reusing canvas is that over time paint will start to disincarnate because you have more than one layer of paint on there. This will start happening after 50-100 yrs. tough

Answer 3

As long as you are comfortable that the painting has no significant value or that the artist paintings have not been going up in value then painting over it should be ok. Two suggestions - if the paint is not too thick you can wash some of it away w paint remover or just get some good canvas primer and apply over the old painting.

Answer 4

Yes. Canvases can be reused. Paint over the entire picture with one color. Preferably the background color you would like to use. Just be sure you're not painting over a valuable work of art first. Look the artist up online.

Answer 5

Yes, given the following:

Wash it down with dishwashing liquid and warm water, using a sponge (try not to really soak it, just get dust and grime off). If it is oil paint, you can paint over it in oil only. Acrylic won't stick after it dries, eventually it will peel off. If it is acrylic paint, you can paint over it with either oil or acrylic safely. You can put a layer of white on to cover up the old paint before you start, or not, it's a matter of preference. If you do, let this layer dry before commencing the new design. Happy painting!

Answer 6

you could, but it would be much less trouble to remove the frame, save it, and buy a new canvas.
if not, you could cover the canvas with a good quality gesso, [golden products are very good], let it dry and if it needs a second coat then do so. but i think the cost of readying the canvas would almost equal the cost of a new canvas.
good luck with whatever you choose to do.

Answer 7

Yes you could.
You could just gesso right over the existing painting. You may need to sand it to have a smooth fresh surface.

I am a painter and that's what I do to old paintings of mine that I don't like:)

Answer 8

Yes you can. Paint over the canvas with white paint (oil or acrylic). My great-grandfather was an aspiring artist and didn't have much money so that's what he used to do.

Answer 9

Yes, you will need to gesso the canvas before you can do anything with it. You can get canvasses relatively cheap from shops like Red Dot and some $2 shops etc...

Answer 10

there is a can of paint that is used just for that reason. you could also just you white paint but it might not go away totally so i would go ahead and buy the special paint!