Featured Image: “Broken Bottle, Broken Life”, Still Life painting by Mark Hillis – 18″ x 24″, Oil on canvas
The Army Tent Canvas Experiment
The painting featured above was a still life assignment that I did in art school at Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Fla., in 1976. The following summer it won BEST IN SHOW in the Allendale, S.C. Annual Art Festival.
In this article about repurposed canvas art I want to focus on an unusual aspect of this painting – it’s creation on questionable material, the re-purposing of that material, and the quality and permanence that has resulted in its endurance since that time.
Like most art students, I found the cost of supplies, even then, to be almost prohibitive. So I was always looking for alternatives.. I made my own vine charcoal sticks, which were of excellent quality and I even experimented with natural dyes for ink wash drawings. (Concentrated coffee makes a beautiful Sienna colored wash).
For some reason I found myself in possession of a scrap of discarded, heavy-duty GREEN ARMY TENT canvas. I looked at it and thought, “hmmm.” I cut out the best section and stretched it on a wood frame, applying multiple layers of gesso. I sanded between each coat and re-primed until I had had a good quality surface. The primed canvas was then used in the classroom to create the painting you see.
Almost 50 years later the painting is in excellent condition; turning it over reveals the green army canvas – its humble beginning.
Durability of Repurposed Materials
Sometimes we, as professionals, really obsess over archival quality regarding our art materials, and I think it is a subject that should certainly not be ignored. But if your budget is tight, gesso is a material that covers less-than-ideal surfaces, preparing them surprisingly well for painting. Paintings have endured for generations, having been painted on gessoed paper, cardboard and various wood surfaces. And of course, it has been used for centuries on canvas of varying quality. You can certainly pick up a large canvas drop cloth from Home Depot or some other outlet and make quite a few canvases from that drop cloth, stretching it on wooden stretchers and applying multiple coats of gesso.
Spiritual Significance
As believers, we see deeper meaning in these things, as the Spirit of God reveals them to our spirit. See how the artist sees more in that old piece of tent canvas?…See how he prepares it carefully, even lovingly, to be able to receive the coats of gesso,…and how lovingly he creates his painting on the surface…how it inspires others…and see how it endures!
And see how the Master Artist takes the fragile material of our lives – material that if left to itself would end up in a trash can somewhere – rejected, damaged and ultimately ruined.
Friends, the raw material of our lives, like the canvas, must be redeemed from the destruction to which it is headed. It must be rescued, saved and prepared by the Master Artist’s hand. Then He can begin the transformative work of making something beautiful of our lives. He says in His Word “If any man/woman be in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are made new”. He actually does far more than covering the flawed surface. He does away with the old and makes a brand new creation!
Final Thoughts – Personal
In the end, the product of His handiwork is not only beautiful. It is durable. Even though the raw material was unworthy and headed for destruction, the NEW CREATION is durable. It has endurance through difficulties, painful circumstances and storms that threaten to destroy us. The New Creation can rise above the waves of adversity that certainly come. And it will last. Psalm 23, so familiar, ends with “And I shall dwell in the House of the Lord Forever! That’s endurance.
In my own life, I see this more and more clearly with every passing year. In Biblical times, a lamp was a ceramic container. It held an old rag. The rag had been trimmed and rolled to form a wick. The Word says that our best efforts are but filthy rags compared to the perfection and purity of Christ. But think about the Grace He has shown in this. Jesus said “I am the Light of the world”. But then He later said to His followers: “You are the light of the world.”! Filthy rags! Yet infused with the oil of the Holy Spirit… not through our own merits but through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Old rags, filled with His oil, and then set ablaze to be lights in this dark world.
For more than 67 years He has been gracious to take the old rags of my life and apply His grace in order that there might be something of His beauty that shines forth.
Whether it’s tent canvas or old rags, He can turn your life into something beautiful!
How glorious are His ways.
Blessings,
Mark
P.S. I will soon be launching my Canvas and Crown Oil Painting Coaching site geared especially towards believers. You can get a sneak look at https://www.canvasandcrowncoaching.com