Why wood panels

Everything in this studio sits on cradled birch panel, and the reason is resin. Epoxy cures into a rigid sheet of glass, and glass does not want to live on a surface that flexes every time the humidity changes. Canvas breathes; panels hold still. Choose resin and the panel is chosen for you.

But the panel earned its place beyond that. Wood takes a pour without sagging into a low spot in the weave. It gives the feathered edge, where the oat ground fades to grain, which has become a signature by accident. And a panel with a resin flood has a weight in the hand that tells you it is an object, not a print.

The cost is preparation. Two sealed gesso coats minimum, each cured fully before the next, or the first tide line beads where the sizing was thin. Stage one of the ladder is nothing but this, and it stays stage one forever: every panel starts as carpentry before it gets to be a painting.