My son has a saw mill and is cutting down trees on his tree farm and fileting them up to make wood for building the house he is working on. He is amazingly resourceful.

I was thinking about taking some of the scraps and painting pictures on them, but I need help from someone in how to do it. How do I prepare the surface of the wood scraps for an oil painting? How long does the wood need to be dried out? These trees were cut down over the winter before the sap started flowing. They are Lob Lolly pines.

Any advice on this subject would be very helpful. I'm excited about this.

I can just see a Texas Longhorn on this piece and maybe have the wood trimmed down a little. My husband said he would cut it however I need it.

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Pine is notorious for splitting.. but not as badly as Hickory or Oak. I would definitely age the wood for at least 6 months (that's what we do with bow staves) to make sure you don't draw the Red Sea just to have it split wide open on you.. We'd have to rename you Moses! (Man I give myself a kick sometimes.. ROTFLOL!).

As for treating it.. I think if you use oil paints it won't soak into the wood as much as other medium. But you might end up having to do more than one coat. I would definitely sand the wood down to a really nice finish before I began

Hope That Helps
D

I have the wood stacked with small blocks between them so they will dry out. I'll make a note on my calendar when 6 months is up.

So far I have the process as:
1- dry out the wood
2- cut the piece to the size I want.
3- sand it nice and smooth.
4- Gesso it.
5- paint the picture

Can anyone think of any steps I'm missing?

Terry..

Since it's a long drying process.. try something for me. When we do the bow staves.. we paint the ends that are exposed to prevent checking (splitting).

You might take one or two of your pieces.. and put the Gesso on now and see if it helps the wood not to get those micro splits.. Just thinking out loud here..

D

OK but I guess I need to sand it first right?

You can.. or you can just Gesso it... and then sand it and reapply the Gesso in 6 months

OH -- OK I'll do that.