Some interesting history and great close-ups of this beautiful painting.  I always love seeing the brushstrokes and texture of the painted surface.

  I just received two rolls of medium/heavy weight lead double-primed canvas that I ordered for some larger paintings.  I ordered one roll of gray and one of white (photos below).  I've noticed that medium and heavier weight linen works well for larger paintings because the lighter/finer linen tends to pucker and warp.
  This beautiful canvas is from A.E. Art Canvas Priming in the Bronx, N.Y. - I've written about this company before, but I want to give them another shout out because Mr. Angel De La Cruz is a great craftsman.  He does completely custom orders so whatever you want, he makes.  This is difficult to find nowadays and it's especially difficult to find lead primed linen.  Also, before I ordered, he graciously sent me samples of linen (for free) to see which one I preferred.  You can reach Angel via email: aeart05@aol.com and their address is:
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A E Art Canvas Priming
605 East 132nd Street
Bronx NY 10454
(718) 665-3814

  I gathered some of my best supplies to stretch a beautiful canvas today.  I used some copper tacks and a really nice tack hammer and some A E Art Canvas primed lead oil ground.   The tacks that I used to stretch this canvas are nice, but they're not the best that I have.  The tacks that I used are the Paris Professional Canvas copper tacks and some of them got messed up while I was hammering them (photo 3 in gallery below).  I also have some copper nails made by Chauvin, which are made in France and I plan to test out soon.  The hammer that I like is a C. S. Osborne & Co. uphoslterer's hammer.  C. S. Obsorne & Co. has been making tools since 1826.
  It's great to use high quality materials, but sometimes it makes it a little intimidating to work on.  I always have to remind myself "Yes, this canvas is beautiful, but I'm going to paint on this and if I mess it up, it's OK."  Treat your materials with respect and don't be wasteful, but remember that they're not sacred idols either.

I got some new tools today that I'm pretty excited about.  The first is a beautiful tack/upholsterer's hammer made by C. S. Osborne & Co.  I bought this hammer from Lee Valley and it was shipped really quickly and came in perfect condition.  I previously had been using a lesser quality tack hammer, but this new one is made in USA and is really nice.  
  I also bought some new copper tacks and nails from Jerry's Artarama, which is a fantastic store and they have a great variety of materials.  Below, you can see some images of the Charvin copper nails.  These nails are 7/16" or 11mm in length.  They have a nice point to them and they are made in France.  They're more expensive, but boy are they nice.  They're magnetic so you can use them with a magnetic tack hammer (see last photo in gallery below).  These nails have a squared-off point to them which gives them a hand-wrought appearance .

  The next thing I got were these Paris Canvas copper tacks.  These are longer (5/8") and have a cylindrical point.  They're less expensive, but are sadly made in China.  They have a nice point to them though and they're magnetic as well, so I'm happy to use them.

  I'm all about quality in my materials and I recommend all these tools for those of you who are looking to stretch your own canvas.  To learn to stretch your own canvas check out my blog post: 
​Stretching a Canvas Step-By-Step!