The Legacy of Alice Carney

Multimedia Artboard was started out of necessity in a garage in Redmond, WA in 1985, just a stone’s throw away from another, somewhat more famous Redmond, WA start-up company called Microsoft.

Alice Carney, who graduated from UCLA in 1946 with an art degree, wanted to become an artist. She traveled to Europe and the Far East to study and hone her artistic skills.

In 1981 she was one of the founding members of the Sandstone Gallery in Laguna Beach, California. That gallery is now in its 39th year of showcasing some of the finest artists in California.

However, by the mid 1980’s, Ms. Carney had started to develop arthritis in her hands to the point where it became almost impossible for her to stretch canvas by herself. She became increasingly frustrated by having to ask her fellow painters for help in doing such a simple task. She decided that there had to be another way. It is important to note that in the mid 80’s, pre-stretched canvas was not as readily available as it is today.

Alice decided to approach the situation from a different point of view. She knew what surfaces were available for artists, but more importantly she knew the common complaints that most artists had with a range of surfaces. She considered these issues as she went about creating a new surface. Her goal was to create a surface that would be much more versatile, a material that would stay dimensionally stable, like a board, but accept all sorts of different mediums like a paper would. After much trial and error and a lot of testing, with the help of her husband, T.C. Carney, Multimedia Artboard was born.

What the Carneys created is an archival material, which is very light weight, easy to cut, can be used on both sides, and is very durable.

Multimedia Artboard is a material that an artist can use for oils, pastels, watercolors, collage, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, virtually any medium available for today’s artists.

2020 marks the 35th anniversary of Multimedia Artboard. Today the tradition within the family-owned business continues. We will always remember Alice, who was motivated by a simple desire to pursue her passion as an artist. She called her product, “The Simple Solution.” The company, Multimedia Artboard, has become know for its award winning art material that is used by artists and teachers around the world.