Ampersand

Ampersand: Exceptional Art Panels from Texas, USA

Ampersand is renowned for its exceptional art panels. Their venture began when a graduate student at the University of Texas, Elaine Salazar, and Colorado artist and inventor, Charles Ewing and his wife Barbara, decided to revive the time-honored tradition of panel painting.

Charles Ewing had developed Claybord, a unique, clay-coated panel that allowed him to achieve amazing detail and to use the surface with scratchboard techniques. Driven by Elaine’s love of art and her background in art history, she and three of her classmates created a business plan around Claybord. They won a national business contest that allowed them to establish Ampersand Art Supply in 1993.

This clay-coated surface revolutionized panel painting, offering unparalleled detail and versatility. Ampersand’s unique surfaces support a wide range of media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, and encaustic.

With a focus on quality and archival standards, Ampersand’s museum series panels are handcrafted in Buda, Texas, using US-grown, renewable, and FSC-certified Aspen wood. Committed to both the environment and the safety of artists, Ampersand’s panels are formaldehyde-free and contain no harmful VOCs.

At the heart of Ampersand’s mission is the belief that surface matters. Every panel is made with conservator-quality materials and sealed with Ampersand’s proprietary Archiva-Seal™ barrier technology, protecting artwork from Support Induced Discoloration (SID) and ensuring archival integrity. Ampersand remains the only manufacturer to offer these patented sealing processes, ensuring that each artist’s work is preserved for generations.

Over 25 years later, Ampersand is a leader in art panels and is still a small, woman-owned company located in Buda, Texas, less than 20 miles from where it all began.