oil painting
allendea...@postoffice.worldnet.att.net
Forgive my ignorance, but I would like a cross section of opinions. Can
anyone give me really good reasons why someone can't paint on canvas with
paints bought from the hardware store, albeit very high quality hardware
store paints? I recall reading an article a few years back in an art magazine
about alkyd paints being a very good choice for artists. Well, one can find
very richly coloured alkyd paints at the hardware store. I'd appreciate
hearing from everyone. The obvious reasons would be quality of paint and the
archival aspects of how it would look years down the road. Anything else?
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Petra Rawlence
In article <6e4t7k$hqe$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, allendeanpeterson@postoffi
ce.worldnet.att.net writes
Hi there,
I was intrigued by your plea for information on alkyds. So, I looked up the
subject in my three reference books on painting mediums. You are right, there
seems to be no information or opinion on this medium beyond a questioning of its
durability. All three books state, however, that alkyd paints don't crack.
I shall watch this space with interest!
Petra Rawlence
zi...@interport.net
The alkyds in my hardware store are all pure liquid and much too thin
for my use. I like to mix just as muchg alkyd as I want into my tube
paint. Also the tube paint has more intense cvolor and no filler-not
true of hardware store paint, which is full of non-pigment filler. It
is not just a question of permanence but also of the character of the
painting process. If you compare the result of alkyd based artist
grade oil white as made by roberson with oil base artist grade Old
Holland Titanium it is night and day. How much more so would store
paint be-midnight and day?
Sincerely,
Gabriel
Dennis L. Dykema
on the issue of paint quality and the act of painting. On the one hand
it is essential that part of the education of an artist entails archival
considerations of the materials which are to be used. On the other hand
I'd rather see the student artist painting with whatever they had
available on whatever surface they could find. So if they choose to
paint with house paint on cardboard boxes, it's a choice they make and
they must accept the consequences that those materials will affect the
results of their efforts in mostly unpleasant ways.
That aside, on the question at hand, I'd say that high quality hardware
store paints are mostly designed to be applied to hard surfaces, and
that the surface should be well primed to isolate the substrate from the
paint. These paints come in a pretty liquid state so they wouldn't
allow much flexibility in painting method. It would probably be nearly
impossible to build them up to a frosting like impasto effect. I'd
suspect that color fastness would vary widely from color to color, and
that mixing even the aparent primary colors would result in some strange
and unpredictable results.
Whether you choose to embark in such experiments or not doesn't really
matter to me, (and probably to most people), but you have to accept the
responsibility for the results of your experiments. Are you prepared to
stand behind the work twenty years from now? Do you want to be written
as someone who like Ryder and Schnable, (and others), who had nearly
complete disdain for archival considerations?
Shaun Gamache
I have seen it done many times. It is deffinately cheaper, however we always come to
the critisism of how long this painting will last. Granted paintings are not often
subjected to oustide weather conditions, but they are made for a flat surface that
will not move. I believe it is the flexibility of artist quality oil paint that
allows it to move with the canvas without cracking or peeling off. A painting is also
able to be rolled up with artist quality paints, but isn't with houspaints because
they dry harder. If you paint on board, that problem does not exist. However, how
long will that paint adhear to the surface before it starts peeling off. If are
making a statement againsed permanence, then go for it. If you don't need the colore
density, by all means use house paint. However if you want your work in reputable
collections and museums where how long the painting will last becomes a factor, this
should be tacken into your concideration. I am sure their are a lot of artists that
do use house paint because it is cheaper or that they do mixed media work where other
elements will act as binders. It all comes down to personal preference in my books.
Personally I like rembrant and stand oil with a little Japan dryer. But every artist
has their own chemisty. I also know of two artists that use house paint and are doing
quite well financially not to mention superb work. So, their you go.
sch...@lookingglass.net
In article <6e6hp6$gh9$1...@broadway.interport.net>,
zi...@interport.net wrote:
>
>
> The alkyds in my hardware store are all pure liquid and much too thin
> for my use.
My personal feeling on this is that it matters not what the artist
of today uses by way of materials. So many artists have used
non-archival materials in their work that it has become accepted
practice, even among the 'elite.' Ryder and Rothko come instantly
to mind when thinking of 'elite' artists whose works have suffered
severe changes from when they were first completed.
I see in a recent issue of Art News a review of works by artists
who acknowledge the use of hardware store paints in their works.
I believe it is purely a matter of manipulation and personal
preference by/for the artist. If YOU like using thin enamels,
then use the. I remember a retired commercial artist I once met
who went about town doing quick portraits of people on the street
and he always had little bottles of hardware store enamels with
which he did the portraits. I still have the one he did of me
somewhere. You would refer to him as a 'quick sketch' artist,
I suppose, in spite of his using enamels for his sketches.
Cheers, T'bird.
Jerry
I have taught art and exhibited and sold my art work for years so I have
some opinions on quality of materials.
Most people buy artwork because they like what they see and not because the
artist used a certain paint brush or a brand of paint.
I worked in exotic woods and did my best to finish them to last as long as
they could. Several times the woods dramatically changed colors which I
did not anticipate but people seemed to love the works in spite of it. No
one ever asked me or anyone that I knew about the archial quality of their
work
When I was in college thirty years ago, several instructors I had would
judge the work of the students based on the type and brand of paint the
students used which I never understood because I always thought if you had
nothing to say what difference did it make what paint you used.