Are Sound Waves Able To Penetrate Canvas Painting?

A painting no - except in low frequencies - a porous fabric - yes.

The change in absorption from canvas paint is going to be frequency dependent. Higher frequencies may be reflected where they were previously absorbed. However, painted canvas is not near as stiff as drywall, plaster or paneling. To the extent that soundwaves strike the surface and pass through or physically vibrate the canvas there will be some deadening action at lower frequencies, though it may not be the same amount as before.

In short any change is likely to be a fairly complex model that will not be given to yes/no answers. You might try temporarily hanging some painted canvas in the various areas you were thinking of painting and just listen. Who knows, you might prefer the results.

You might want to look at the Gershman site, they have some panels called Acoustic Art ...I use them for 1st refelections and back wall....nice.

A layer of painted canvas isn't soundproof, so there will be some effect to have panels behind painting VS not. It won't be the same response the panel was designed for, but it should be better than the painting on a bare wall.

You could also size the panel bigger than the paintin to sort of highlight it, or use some sort of standoff to space the painting off of the panel slightly.

John C.

Thinking that in a movie theater, the center speaker is behind the screen. If you look closely at the screen material, you will see that it is perforated with fine holes.

Similarly there are a lot of banner and billboard surface materials (media) that are perforated for one reason or another. If you could source one of these and then print on it with an inkjet (which has no mass unlike paints applied with brushes and palette knives) you might have something that both looks and sounds good.

Might look in the yellow pages for companies specializing in interior design applications as well as companies specializing in large scale printing...

Then stretch the final piece over a frame filled with your sound absorbing material. You would probably want a deeper frame (stretcher bar) then normal so you can get more masterial in.

Also do a search for John Risch here and on Audio Asylum. He's done a lot of great posts on DIY projects like this and may have already solved this problem.

I am sure a cost effective solution is out there - sorry I can't point you any more precisely.