Ampersand Boards

Ampersand is an American company, and began their mission in 1994 of reviving the time-honoured tradition of panel painting with the creation of Claybord, their very first coated painting panel.  Over the years, Ampersand has added many painting panels with unique surface coatings and profiles suitable for all media from oils to pastels. Ampersand’s commitment to quality and archival principles led them to engineer the only archival sealed panels on the market today.

Individual articles on the initial 4 panels will be made available. We explain what these boards are capable of and links will be available via the image once the articles are made available.

Gessobord

Museum Series Gessobord is the most trusted pre-gessoed wood panel by artists for their work. The superior quality acrylic gesso ground does not dull colours and the lightly sanded surface provides exceptional brush control. Every Gessobord panel is protected by the proprietary Archiva-Seal barrier technology, the most advanced formula for sealing wood that prevents support induced discoloration.Tough enough to hold the most rigorous palette knife painting and collage, but delicate enough for fluid brush strokes, portraits and tight detail work. Click on the image to read the article.

Pastelbord

Pastelbord is a clay and gesso coated hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish comparable to a sanded pastel paper except more durable and more versatile. The coating is pH neutral and non-yellowing, making it a truly permanent museum quality surface. Not just for pastels it also works great with charcoal, conte crayon, coloured pencils, watercolour pencils, ink and acrylics. Marble-dust tooth holds more layers than pastel paper. Available in white, gray, sand, and green.
Click the image to read the article on this product.

---

Aquabord

Aquabord is an acid-free textured clay surface that absorbs watercolors like a fine paper. Colors retain their purity and vibrancy in a way that even the finest of watercolor papers can't match. When compared with watercolor paper, this multimedia panel simulates the absorbency and texture of cold pressed, but allows color to be lifted back to white easily while also leaving the richest, most vibrant color possible. 

Artists Panel Primed Smooth

Primed Smooth cradled panels have a semi-absorbent acid-free ground that is excellent for painting in oils, acrylics and water-media but are also amazing with graphite, collage, graphic markers, ink and much more! It’s also perfectly suited for mounting papers, photos, giclées and canvas. In addition to being completely primed on the surface, cradled panels are also primed on the sides — perfect for wrapping your images around the panel's edge without the extra prep work! These wood panels will not give, bend or flex.

Acid Free & Archival panels

Made with conservator quality wood materials and sealing processes, no other panel on the market protects an artist’s work like an Ampersand panel.  Ampersand has developed the most advanced formula for sealing wood to ensure that the painting grounds and your artwork remain acid free over time. Every coated Museum Series panel is protected by our proprietary Archiva-Seal barrier technology that prevents support induced discoloration and makes Ampersand panels truly archival. 
Only Ampersand uses Archiva-Seal technology for sealing wood correctly. Look for the Archiva-Seal logo on every coated Ampersand Museum Panel and only Ampersand uses true high density hardboard made from US-grown renewable and FSC Certified Aspen wood fibers. Ampersand brand Hardbord is made without formaldehyde or harmful VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) unlike other hardboards and MDF boards.  Further, no one else constructs their cradle support frames using 13-ply birch plywood. All Ampersand painting grounds are archival and non-yellowing. Ampersand Museum Series panels are fully made and handcrafted in the USA. Ampersand guarantees that every panel will be of consistent quality from one painting to the next.

Other surfaces available from Ampersand

Scratchbord

Scratchbord is a clay coated hardboard panel for scratchboard that is coated with India ink. Comparable to traditional paper scratchboard, except better – it’s more durable and easier to scratch into for cleaner and crisper details and lines. For added dimension, colored inks can be added to the white areas and then scratched again for additional highlights and volume. Artwork can be sprayed with spray fixative like Krylon® UV Resistant Clear Coatings or Lascaux Fixativ, allowing the finished scratchboard to be framed without glass!​

Vertical Divider

Scratchbord Artist: Karen Neal

Claybord

Museum Series Claybord is made using 1/8" true artist hardboard and features Ampersand’s simply amazing kaolin clay ground formula similar in paintability to the clay gesso grounds used during the Renaissance. The surface is sanded to an ULTRA-smooth, highly absorbent finish so your paint colors remain true and brilliant. Work the surface by thinly applying paint or ink, then remove it, reapply it, even scratch through it to add contrast, texture and fine details. pH neutral, acid-free clay coating and sanded to an ultra-smooth and absorbent finish.

Vertical Divider

claybord Artist: James Hough

Encaustic Bord

Encaustic gesso is applied to Ampersand’s sealed Hardbord panel to form a bright, smooth and velvety surface that is ready to use with the ancient technique of encaustic painting. The ground is not only heat resistant and highly absorbent, but also holds tight to layers of wax and collage without the fear of cracking or separation. Ampersand’s archival panel coating technology and R&F’s expertise in encaustics led to Encausticbord, a unique wood panel that has the tooth to hold encaustic and mixed media unlike any other surface.

Hardbord

An ultra-stable professional artist-grade hardboard support. The high-density fiber core is engineered for stability eliminating the warping and bowing issues found in other substrates. Moisture resistant and formaldehyde-free, Hardbord is the choice substrate for all Ampersand Museum Series pre-coated panels. Hardbord is perfectly suited to all acrylic gesso and oil primers. Archival and FSC Certified, sustainable renewable wood.

The Natural Wood Panel

The Ampersand Natural Wood Panel is constructed to be more dimensionally stable in larger sizes. Made with a thick, premium basswood top mounted to a heavy-duty solid basswood cradle frame, it will not flex under heavy layers of paint or wax and holds up to extreme weight and pressure. Unlike rough birch plywood panels, this uniform surface is sanded perfectly smooth allowing for a more even painting ground or wood stain.

Vertical Divider

Canvas Texture Artist Panel

The ready-to-paint surface is like a gessoed canvas in texture, appearance and absorbency, giving artists the familiar feel of a fine linen or canvas with the additional advantage of painting on a rigid surface. The durable, rigid, medium density fiberboard (MDF) support makes the Primed Canvas Texture panel ideal for palette-knife painting and multimedia applications. These wood panels will not give, bend or flex.

Vertical Divider

Unprimed Basswood Artist Panel

The Unprimed Basswood panel is handcrafted using a sturdy, non-flexible 4mm basswood top, sanded perfectly smooth and ready to seal and prime with the ground of your choice. Basswood is a premium, select wood that outperforms the typically used birch plywood in many ways. It is inherently smoother with a tight wood grain and no raised fibers, making it easier to gesso and paint on. Basswood is ultra-stable and will not give, bend or flex.

---

Animal & Environmentally Friendly products

No Animal Testing

No animal testing is done on site or by any of the raw materials suppliers they use – which are very few – or, in their facility in China or the raw materials used overseas. They manufacture all the Museum Series products in the US (Buda, Texas) and the Value Series products in a dedicated facility in China.

Vertical Divider

No Animal Derivatives

Both the Archival-Seal™ product and all of the coatings they manufacture do not incorporate the use of any animal-based products. They only use water-based paints suspended in acrylic polymers derived from plant sources. The white pigments used, calcium carbonate for example, contain some fossils from pre-history, but they don’t consider them animal based given the natural and distant origins of the source.

Vertical Divider

Excellent Sustainability

Only Ampersand™ uses true high-density hardboard made from US-grown and renewable Aspen wood fibers. Gessobord is archival, eco-friendly and formaldehyde-free. They use a completely green manufacturing process that protects the natural environment with no harmful chemicals used.

Article created: 2019