Whether you paint on Masonite Hard Board, pine, oak, birch, basically all wood surfaces, each of these surfaces need a special preparation prior to oil painting. The ability to develop an archival oil painting depends on sealing the wood completely so that no material can leech from the wood into the oil painting and or so that no material leech from the oil painting into the wood.  If that happens the painting will deteroriate and no longer be archival. A second very important quality of this sealing layer is developing a strong bond to this sealing layer if you are coating with an inorganic gesso coating ground, if this is applied directly to the wood with no sealing layer there is a tendency of this layer to delaminate off the wood surface.

          In my process I use Golden GAC-100, as is, from the container no diluting with water. I use a 3" wide foam brush and I coat front, back and sides, with two layers. To help the drying process, I have made a special drying rack. I took two 1/2" plywood pieces sized 3 1/2" wide and 12" long and put two galvanized nails 3 1 /2" long through the plywood about 7" apart. This allows me to coat both sides of the wood and place under the wet side not making any marks, and this allows the fan air to circulate evenlying top and bottom drying uniformly. Very important. I let the first layer dry for one hour and then after coating the second layer I let dry for three hours prior to my finishing layers. After each coating layer I sand with #220 Grit sand paper until smooth, very important to have a ultra smooth surface, My finishing coating layer that I paint on is an inorganic coating made with distilled water, Liquitex Gesso, calcium carbonate, silica dioxide,  sodium carbonate, with a tint of iron oxide. The sodium carbonate keeps the pH in a basic range so that no bugs will grow in your coating over time. I use two wet layers using a 4" foam brush, then dry in front of a circulating fan, about one hour. Then I apply two more wet layers and air dry. Once dry I sand smooth using a #220 Grit sandpaper, clean all loose dust from surface. I then let cure a minimum of 3 days and if possible for two weeks. You have to plan ahead when using wood surfaces, have enough time to prepare the surfaces correctly, in order to keep your painting schedules moving smoothly with no interruptions.

          If you are interested and have more questions please send your query. Happy painting!

Jim Springett wildlife painter