Re-using old canvas

[Vodkaman]

I found several large canvases in the trash and yard sales. Some of it is really shitty. Let me put it this way, if you had a pet elephant and it ate gallons of your paint, and when you come home and you see that your elephant is sick, you give it some medicine to make it shit. Then the elephant has explosive diarrhea, and there's paint all over the place. That is how them paintings look. Being a cheap stake, I want to reuse them. Is there any way the paint can be removed? I think they are oil paint. My first thought is to gesso over them, but some of them have paint on so thick that they will show through. Should I use paint remover from hardware store or will it ruin the canvas?

-Kane

[•Lindsay•]

Turpentine works, but the kind from the hardware store smells and someone told me the minerals yellow the paint.

[chaosrocks]

sand paper
just sand the surface
hand held circular snader works but you have to be careful not to go through

then re gesso

[Qitsune]

We use easy off (yeah the stuff to clean ovens) it's weird but works quite well... my bf only paints on recycled canvases without gessoing first so he gets these funky left over faded colors and uses that as a basis.

[Vodkaman]

Thanks Linzoy, Chaosrock, and Qitsune for advice. Well I'm not sure about the sanding thing...would that work on cloth canvas? Also, I'm worried that some of the chemicals would leave a residue and bleed out into the (fresh) paint later.

-Kane

[Ilaekae]

Try this... (do it outside!)

DON'T SMOKE while doing this--and did I mention doing it outside?

Fill a spray bottle with turp or paint thinner--or use an absorbent soft rag. Lay the canvas flat and blast the front with a heavy layer of turp (or even brush it on real heavy with a house painting brush) and then cover it loosely with a piece of plastic, like from a dry cleaner or a garbage bag. I'd suggest doing all the canvases at one time. Just stack 'em up helterskelter so the fumes can get out around the edges.

Go back and do it again when most of the turp is absorbed, and yet again. The paint and varnish should all soften enough to wipe off with a rough rag soaked in turp. Keep switching rags as they get dirty.

Any heavy parts you can usually chip or slush of with something like an old credit card or plastic SMOOTH knife.

Make sure you hang up all the rags til they dry, and then throw out immediately, but NEVER bring them into the house.

[Vodkaman]

Alright, Ilaekae, I'll give it a try. I'll remember not to smoke....lol!!!