Canvas on Panels - Cheap Panel Quest Solved!!

I am taking a summer class with Bobbi Pratte.  I always learn something when I study with someone new.  Bobbi told the class about Judson's Art Outfitters.  They have a lot of great surfaces to paint on or apply canvas to, which I have not seen elsewhere. 

In particular, Bobbi likes the "do it yourself" gatorboard.  You slap some miracle muck on the gatorboard and attach you canvas to it.  Use a bray to get out the air bubbles then put tons of books on top for a few days.  Bobbi had a few finished samples, including gatorboard with canvas.  It creates a light weight painting surface.  I think these are ideal for the Art League Bin Gallery which requires backing and mat; plein air events; and especially traveling workshops.  What I also learned from another student was that Centurion makes a linen canvas pad--e.g. pre-cut canvas in different sizes.  And it's cheap!  How did I not know this???  One thing to remember is that if you buy a 12 x 16 gatorboard and paste on a 12 x 16 linen sheet from Centurion's pad, the canvas is going to shrink when it dries.  It shrinks about the amount of space that a frame covers.  This could be a problem.  So, I'm going to try a sample and see if the shrinkage is visiable once framed.  12 x 16 canvas on gatboard probably costs all told $8.  Not bad.

In any case, I decided to buy a sample pack of Judson's surfaces.  They have this wood composite that looks awesome.  They also carry dibond, which I LOVE.  I'm not sure how you attach linen to dibond, but I plan to find out. 

So I think I solved my cheap panel quest!!