The Many Uses of White Gesso

As an artist, I learned about the white gesso, years ago taking various art courses in oils and acrylics. White gesso is an opaque paint for priming canvas and should be on the shelves of any serious artist. For centuries, artists have applied it to canvas, wood, or other surfaces before they started their paintings in acrylics and oils. Besides used as a covering, white gesso also adds texture, ensuring that the paints applied over it will stick well.

Many of the old religious paintings you've admired were done by first applying gesso. By coating a surface with white gesso, acrylics and oils are prevented from sinking into the wood as would have done as if nothing had been applied. What's more, white gesso makes the surface much smoother, covering imperfections and small indentations.

White gesso quickly became my trusted friend when I discovered just how easy it was to cover up any painting, giving me a completely new slate. It's like White-Out to an oil painter or acrylic artist, and is as essential as an eraser to a pencil artist. After using white gesso to "start over", I felt I was spoiled when I went on to work in other mediums such as pen-'n-ink and colored pencils, which were harder to correct mistakes.

What's more, white gesso is useful product even if I never painted another fine picture in acrylics or oils.

It's a very versatile product, as I've used it to cover up items, suh as old plates I picked up for pennies at thrift stores. After covering up the plates, I've painted my artwork over it, in craft paints. I've also covered old tissue boxes, wastepaper baskets, and other used items with white gesso before painting over them.

White gesso is also excellent for home projects, such as revamping old furniture. Last year when I was tempted to toss out an old coffee table and end tables, I thought about my bottle of white gesso and my creative juices started to flow. Now I wouldn't trade my renovated end tables and coffee table in for a new set of living room furniture.

First I sanded down the tops of my furniture (made of formica), and then cleaned them thoroughly. I next painted the tops with white gesso. After the gesso dried, I took some stencils of flowers and decorated all three pieces of furniture. With investing in only the cost of my bottle of white gesso and a stencil set I had "new" furniture.

But it didn't stop there. I've used white gesso to completely paint over three old desks. For one desk, I wanted a pale green look, so I added a little sea green color from a my acrylic craft paints. Besides craft paints, you can also use intense watercolors or crystals from drinks such as Kool-aid or Crystallite to color the white.

What's more, white gesso has also been used with paper, working with collages, to keep paint from soaking in with your paper. And, black gesso has been used for art journaling.

Where can you find it?

Most art stores carry white gesso. However, it's a little cheaper if bought in stores such as Wal-Mart, where you can find it in the crafts department. Why not buy it in bulk because you can use it for so many home projects as well as art ones.

Once you discover white gesso, you'll be coming up with your own creative projects. Whether it's redoing furniture or used in crafts, using white gesso is both creative and fun!