When I started building my own painting panels, I wasn’t trying to reinvent things for the sake of novelty—I was trying to solve real problems I kept running into as a painter: weight, thickness, and long-term stability, especially as panels got larger.

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I still use a traditional perimeter cradle. It’s familiar, practical, and works well for mounting and handling. Where my panels differ is what happens inside.

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Instead of relying on a deep, heavy cradle alone for stiffness, I build an internal truss system into the panel, including diagonal cross-bracing from corner to corner. This type of structure is common in architecture and aircraft construction, where strength comes from geometry rather than bulk. By distributing forces across the entire panel, the internal truss resists twisting and racking—the kinds of movement that can lead to warping over time.

Because the internal structure is doing much of the structural work, the perimeter cradle can be slimmer and lighter without sacrificing rigidity. The result is a panel that has a lower profile, weighs less, and stays flatter, while still feeling solid and substantial in use.

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This hybrid approach—traditional cradle plus internal truss—lets me build panels that are stiff, stable, and well-suited for serious painting, whether you’re working small or pushing into larger formats. Everything is designed from the perspective of someone who actually paints on these surfaces and wants them to perform reliably for years.

 

For the artist, Sierra Art Panels offers a new alternative to traditional cradled panels, stretched canvas, warped boards, hardboard and foam core.  Artists enjoy increased framing options, and slim profiles for easier storage, transport, and shipping. With a thickness of 1/8 to 1 3/8 inches, they occupy less studio space and can be stored in a smaller area. The panels' strength protects them from damage during shipping, which also allows a thinner package and reduced mailing costs.

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For the collector, Sierra Art Panels are a premium substrate for artists who work with high quality materials creating archival quality,  By choosing artwork created on Sierra Art Panels, art collectors can have confidence that their investment in the artwork will appreciate over time, whether they plan to sell it in the near future or pass it down through generations.