Raking side-light across a thickly painted canvas surface, impasto ridges casting fine shadows, warm amber light source from the left

Raking light across a built-up paint surface. You are looking at the top of the stack — six more layers sit underneath it, and the seventh is around the edge.

Image: Gering & Lopez

A painting is a stack. This site is arranged like one.

Seven layers, from the wooden bars at the back to the moulding around the front. The navigation is the diagram: seven labels — STRETCHER, CANVAS, GROUND, PAINT, VARNISH, LIGHT, FRAME — name the physical layers of a painting in order from back to front. Traversing the nav traverses the object. Every section and every piece lives inside that stack.

SPECIMEN, EDGE ONBAND DEPTH = HOW MUCH THERE IS TO SAYDRAG THE BLADE OR HOVER TO PEEL

1STRETCHERLAYER 1 · 3 piecesThe wooden skeleton underneath everything — why it moves, how it holds, and what happens when it fails.Eight Taps with a Mallet →2CANVASLAYER 2 · 3 piecesThe woven surface that takes the ground — thread count, tension, and the weave you can feel through the paint.The Linen Argument →3GROUNDLAYER 3 · 3 piecesGesso, chalk, lead white — the white layer everything sits on and why its recipe changes everything above it.Gesso: the White Everything Sits On →4PAINTLAYER 4 · 4 piecesPigment, binder, body — where colour comes from and why paint behaves the way it does under the brush.Why Some Colours Fade and Others Don't →5VARNISHLAYER 5 · 3 piecesThe removable skin on top — what it changes optically, why it yellows, and when to leave it alone.The Layer That Deepens Everything →6LIGHTLAYER 6 · 4 piecesHow a painting changes with the direction, colour and quantity of light — and how to use that when looking.What Raking Light Shows That Normal Light Hides →7FRAMELAYER 7 · 4 piecesMoulding profiles, gilding, rebate depth — the frame as part of the picture rather than an afterthought.The Picture Starts at the Moulding →

Seven layers, back to front. Hover a layer — or drag the blade — to peel the picture back to it.

The long read

One at a time. This one is about the act of looking itself.

LIGHT · layer 6 of seven · 7 min read

More Than Eight Seconds

A practical piece on how to look at a painting for longer than instinct allows — where to start, what to follow, how long different kinds of attention take to develop. The site's flagship piece on the act of looking.

Indifference at eight seconds is not a verdict on the painting. It is mostly a verdict on eight seconds.
FROM “MORE THAN EIGHT SECONDS”

Read the piece

A woman views framed paintings on a red gallery wall lined with gold frames — Photo: Alina Rossoshanska / Pexels

The bench

The suppliers, workshops and institutions that keep this work lit.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

WITH SUPPORT FROM

What each layer is

Seven short answers, then the pieces that go further.

STRETCHERLAYER 1

The wooden skeleton underneath everything — why it moves, how it holds, and what happens when it fails.

CANVASLAYER 2

The woven surface that takes the ground — thread count, tension, and the weave you can feel through the paint.

GROUNDLAYER 3

Gesso, chalk, lead white — the white layer everything sits on and why its recipe changes everything above it.

PAINTLAYER 4

Pigment, binder, body — where colour comes from and why paint behaves the way it does under the brush.

VARNISHLAYER 5

The removable skin on top — what it changes optically, why it yellows, and when to leave it alone.

LIGHTLAYER 6

How a painting changes with the direction, colour and quantity of light — and how to use that when looking.

FRAMELAYER 7

Moulding profiles, gilding, rebate depth — the frame as part of the picture rather than an afterthought.